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engine/library/api/sdk/wrapper?

Started by dalaptop Dec 2, 2001 at 8:43 PM 1 replies 300+ views

Original Post

Dec 2, 2001 at 8:43 PM

I always here things like: Quake "Engine", DirectX "Wrapper", Direct3D "API", the SDK, or a game "library". What is the difference between all these? Can someone give me a definition of the following words: Engine Library API SDK Wrapper I just want to know what the difference is between these. ~Andrew Clark

Oluseyi

Dec 2, 2001 at 9:21 PM

API and SDK are abbreviations for Application Programming Interface and Software Development Kit respectively (what do those mean? Weeeell, that''s a whole ''nother caboose!)

"Wrapper" means just that - code of one sort that "wraps" other code, either making it easier to use or making it conform to a certain paradigm (writing an object-oriented class hierarchy around a procedural library is an example of this).

A library is a collection of code routines that may be imported into your own application project. There are two types of code libraries - static libraries, which are compiled into your application in entirety, and dynamic libraries, which can be imported and released nearly at whim.

Engine: a collection of code routines/classes that implements the functionality upon which an application is based. You can have graphics engines, particle engines, sound engines, physics engines... "engine" has become the buzzword for application library.

As always, you can find more information at Google.

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