Whether you use a mousedriven
IDE or a text editor and make, Linux imposes certain requirements and provides a number
of capabilities that determine what the code you write in an IDE or text editor must do and can do.
In this chapter, the term programming interface refers to the rules or methods followed to accomplish
a particular task. As with programming environments, programming interfaces are usually
thought of as graphical or command line:
Graphical interface??”Uses the X Window System, or X, to receive and process user
input and display information.
Command-line interface??”A strictly text-based affair that does not require a windowing
system to run.
For example, Firefox, a Web browser, has a graphical interface; it won??™t work if X isn??™t running.
Pine, a popular e-mail client, has a command-line interface; it works whether X is running or not.
There is a third type of interface, however, an application programming interface, or API. An API
provides a structured method to write a program that performs a certain task. For example, to
write a program that plays sounds, you use the sound API; to write a program that communicates
over a TCP/IP network, you use the socket API. Neither playing a sound nor communicating over
a TCP/IP network necessarily requires a graphical or command-line interface; both graphical and
command-line programs can play sounds or use TCP/IP, provided they use the proper API.
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