It is a bit of a chicken and egg problem, though. It's not enough for researchers to write a paper about APIs that should exist. The APIs have to get implemente

It is a bit of a chicken and egg problem, though. It's not enough for researchers to write a paper about APIs that should exist. The APIs have to get implemented across major platforms, which requires major applications using those APIs to motivate them. I don't see how it would ever have happened with a giant slow incremental process, and the web has been that process for us.