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It is not very clear what is "language" and what are "libraries", in a conceptual sense. For example, you can build Common Lisp from a handful of things / speci
by blue1 17y ago
It is not very clear what is "language" and what are "libraries", in a conceptual sense. For example, you can build Common Lisp from a handful of things / special forms, but the ANSI standard is very large, because it wanted to standardize a lot of things that could be built in many different ways (e.g. the loop facility).
Basically, the difference between "language" and "library" is normative. What you put in "language" are requirements for conforming implementations. It is a political decision more than a technical one.
- cabalamat 17y ago> What you put in "language" are requirements for conforming implementations. That's a language definition, not a language. Consider a language L which is implemented in implementation language M. Stuff that's written in L is part of the satndard library. Stuff that could have been written in L but is written in M (e.g. for speed) is part of the language. And stuff that is written in M is also part of the language.