Language binding

In programming and software design, binding is an application programming interface (API) that provides glue code specifically made to allow a programming language to use a foreign library or operating system service (one that is not native to that language).

Characteristics[]

Binding generally refers to a mapping of one thing to another. In the context of software libraries, bindings are wrapper libraries that bridge two programming languages, so that a library written for one language can be used in another language.^[1] Many software libraries are written in system programming languages such as C or C++. To use such libraries from another language, usually of higher-level, such as Java, Common Lisp, Scheme, Python, or Lua, a binding to the library must be created in that language, possibly requiring recompiling the language's code, depending on the amount of modification needed.^[2] However, most languages offer a foreign function interface, such as Python's and OCaml's ctypes, and Embeddable Common Lisp's cffi and uffi.^[3]^[4]^[5]

For example, Python bindings are used when an extant C library, written for some purpose, is to be used from Python. Another example is libsvn which is written in C to provide an API to access the Subversion software repository. To access Subversion from within Java code, libsvnjavahl can be used, which depends on libsvn being installed and acts as a bridge between the language Java and libsvn, thus providing an API that invokes functions from libsvn to do the work.^[6]

Major motives to create library bindings include software reuse, to reduce reimplementing a library in several languages, and the difficulty of implementing some algorithms efficiently in some high-level languages.

Runtime environment[]

Object models[]

Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) – cross-platform-language model
Component Object Model (COM) – Microsoft Windows only cross-language model
- Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) – extension enabling COM to work over networks
- Cross Platform Component Object Model (XPCOM) – Mozilla applications cross-platform model
Common Language Infrastructure – .NET Framework cross-platform-language model
Freedesktop.org D-Bus – open cross-platform-language model

Virtual machines[]

Comparison of application virtual machines

Porting[]

Portable object – cross-platform-language object model definition

References[]

^ "Appendix A. Creating a language binding for cairo". Cairographics.org. Retrieved 2014-04-02.
^ "Standards, APIs, Interfaces and Bindings". Acm.org. Archived from the original on 2015-01-16. Retrieved 2014-04-02.
^ "ctypes – A foreign function library for Python". Python v3.8.3 documentation. Docs.python.org. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
^ Hickey, Jason; Madhavapeddy, Anil; Minsky, Yaron (2013). "Real Worl OCaml, Chapter 19. Foreign Function Interface". realworldocaml.org. Retrieved 2015-07-19.
^ "Introduction – CFFI User Manual". Common-lisp.net. Retrieved 2014-04-02.
^ "Subversion JavaHL FAQ". Subclipse.tigris.org. 2013-06-18. Retrieved 2014-04-02.

External links[]

JTC1/SC22/WG11 - Binding Techniques, an ISO standard for language bindings
What is a language binding?

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[1] "Appendix A. Creating a language binding for cairo". Cairographics.org. Retrieved 2014-04-02.

[2] "Standards, APIs, Interfaces and Bindings". Acm.org. Archived from the original on 2015-01-16. Retrieved 2014-04-02.

[3] "ctypes – A foreign function library for Python". Python v3.8.3 documentation. Docs.python.org. Retrieved 2020-06-04.

[4] Hickey, Jason; Madhavapeddy, Anil; Minsky, Yaron (2013). "Real Worl OCaml, Chapter 19. Foreign Function Interface". realworldocaml.org. Retrieved 2015-07-19.

[5] "Introduction – CFFI User Manual". Common-lisp.net. Retrieved 2014-04-02.

[6] "Subversion JavaHL FAQ". Subclipse.tigris.org. 2013-06-18. Retrieved 2014-04-02.

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