Which preposition should i put before "interface"?

[trailofdead]

You know, by interface is meant a surface forming a commonboundary between
adjacent regions, bodies, substances or phases or similar to that.

and long since i 've been puzzled about seeking a right preposition to
collocate this word, which one should i select ? in, on or at ? or other
prepositions?

TIA.
--
šqŠäŠäŠäšr
{/-¡ò¡ò-\}
( (oo) )
¡¡ Šá
Despite all my rage, I¡¯m still just a rat in the cage¡­
Duanhanqing
Tel:[phone]
E-mail:***@mail.techfaith.cn
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Software Department
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[The Other Fran]

Post by trailofdead
You know, by interface is meant a surface forming a commonboundary between
adjacent regions, bodies, substances or phases or similar to that.
and long since i 've been puzzled about seeking a right preposition to
collocate this word, which one should i select ? in, on or at ? or other
prepositions?

I believe it depends on whether the interface is conceptual or
physical.

Clearly, when describing a browser or some software interface, using
"on" would be perfectly reasonable.

e.g. click on the link on the page ...



A somewhat more conceptual use of interface ... "at the interface
between man and machine" might allow "at".

I've never heard "in the interface".

TOF

[trailofdead]

thanks! your answer makes me confident.
--
šqŠäŠäŠäšr
{/-¡ò¡ò-\}
( (oo) )
¡¡ Šá
Despite all my rage, I¡¯m still just a rat in the cage¡­
Duanhanqing
Tel:[phone]
E-mail:***@mail.techfaith.cn
µÂÐÅÎÞÏß͚Ѷ¿ÆŒŒÓÐÏÞ¹«ËŸ ÈíŒþ²¿
Software Department
TechFaith Wireless Communication Technology Ltd.
±±Ÿ©Êг¯ÑôÇøŸÆÏÉÇŶ«Â·1ºÅM8¶«5²ã
1/F M8 East No.1 Jiu Xian Qiao Dong Road,Chao Yang District.Beijing,China
P.C.100016

"The Other Fran" <***@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:***@e56g2000cwe.googlegroups.com...
|
| trailofdead wrote:
| > You know, by interface is meant a surface forming a commonboundary
between
| > adjacent regions, bodies, substances or phases or similar to that.
| >
| > and long since i 've been puzzled about seeking a right preposition to
| > collocate this word, which one should i select ? in, on or at ? or
other
| > prepositions?
|
| I believe it depends on whether the interface is conceptual or
| physical.
|
| Clearly, when describing a browser or some software interface, using
| "on" would be perfectly reasonable.
|
| e.g. click on the link on the page ...
|
|
|
| A somewhat more conceptual use of interface ... "at the interface
| between man and machine" might allow "at".
|
| I've never heard "in the interface".
|
| TOF
|

[andrew queisser]

Post by trailofdead
You know, by interface is meant a surface forming a commonboundary between
adjacent regions, bodies, substances or phases or similar to that.
and long since i 've been puzzled about seeking a right preposition to
collocate this word, which one should i select ? in, on or at ? or other
prepositions?

And if the interface is that of a software library you use "against", e.g.
"Win32 is a crappy interface to program against".

[The Other Fran]

Post by andrew queisser

Post by trailofdead
You know, by interface is meant a surface forming a commonboundary between
adjacent regions, bodies, substances or phases or similar to that.
and long since i 've been puzzled about seeking a right preposition to
collocate this word, which one should i select ? in, on or at ? or other
prepositions?

And if the interface is that of a software library you use "against", e.g.
"Win32 is a crappy interface to program against".

I'm not entirely clear what this means. Perhaps you mean "use" where
you;ve used "against". I suppose if you're attacking Win32 with some
program, "against" is OK..

TOF

[andrew queisser]

Post by The Other Fran

Post by andrew queisser

Post by trailofdead
You know, by interface is meant a surface forming a commonboundary between
adjacent regions, bodies, substances or phases or similar to that.
and long since i 've been puzzled about seeking a right preposition to
collocate this word, which one should i select ? in, on or at ? or other
prepositions?

And if the interface is that of a software library you use "against", e.g.
"Win32 is a crappy interface to program against".

I'm not entirely clear what this means. Perhaps you mean "use" where
you;ve used "against". I suppose if you're attacking Win32 with some
program, "against" is OK..
TOF

No malicious intent is implied in that usage of the word "against". Windows
has a set of functions called "Win32" so a program that's written to run on
Windows is said to be written "against" the Win32 interface. Similarly, many
networking programs are written against the "sockets" library.

In the case where interface is a set of function calls (e.g. a software
interface) using "against" means that your program uses those function
calls.

Examples:

"I wrote my program against the Win32 interface but it could be easily be
written against a different interface."

"I made a software library against which our customer can write his
programs."

This usage of "against" with "interface" has been around for most of my
programming career (ca. 15 yrs).

Andrew

[The Other Fran]

Post by andrew queisser

Post by The Other Fran

Post by andrew queisser

Post by trailofdead
You know, by interface is meant a surface forming a commonboundary between
adjacent regions, bodies, substances or phases or similar to that.
and long since i 've been puzzled about seeking a right preposition to
collocate this word, which one should i select ? in, on or at ? or other
prepositions?

And if the interface is that of a software library you use "against", e.g.
"Win32 is a crappy interface to program against".

I'm not entirely clear what this means. Perhaps you mean "use" where
you;ve used "against". I suppose if you're attacking Win32 with some
program, "against" is OK..
TOF

No malicious intent is implied in that usage of the word "against". Windows
has a set of functions called "Win32" so a program that's written to run on
Windows is said to be written "against" the Win32 interface. Similarly, many
networking programs are written against the "sockets" library.
In the case where interface is a set of function calls (e.g. a software
interface) using "against" means that your program uses those function
calls.
"I wrote my program against the Win32 interface but it could be easily be
written against a different interface."
"I made a software library against which our customer can write his
programs."
This usage of "against" with "interface" has been around for most of my
programming career (ca. 15 yrs).

What that means then is that those 'outside the tent' and especially
those who are not strong in English are likely to be confused by the
preposition you suggest. Perhaps "for" would be better here, or perhaps
your suggested sentence could be written:

"I wrote my program assuming the Win32 interface but it could be easily
be
for a different interface."

In your initial suggestion I was tempted to interpret it as "Win32 is a
crappy interface to use" cutting out the preposition altogether. If
that's what it really means, this is much simpler.


TOF

[andrew queisser]

Post by The Other Fran

Post by andrew queisser

Post by The Other Fran

Post by andrew queisser

Post by trailofdead
You know, by interface is meant a surface forming a commonboundary between
adjacent regions, bodies, substances or phases or similar to that.
and long since i 've been puzzled about seeking a right preposition to
collocate this word, which one should i select ? in, on or at ? or other
prepositions?

And if the interface is that of a software library you use "against", e.g.
"Win32 is a crappy interface to program against".

I'm not entirely clear what this means. Perhaps you mean "use" where
you;ve used "against". I suppose if you're attacking Win32 with some
program, "against" is OK..
TOF

No malicious intent is implied in that usage of the word "against". Windows
has a set of functions called "Win32" so a program that's written to run on
Windows is said to be written "against" the Win32 interface. Similarly, many
networking programs are written against the "sockets" library.
In the case where interface is a set of function calls (e.g. a software
interface) using "against" means that your program uses those function
calls.
"I wrote my program against the Win32 interface but it could be easily be
written against a different interface."
"I made a software library against which our customer can write his
programs."
This usage of "against" with "interface" has been around for most of my
programming career (ca. 15 yrs).

What that means then is that those 'outside the tent' and especially
those who are not strong in English are likely to be confused by the
preposition you suggest. Perhaps "for" would be better here, or perhaps
"I wrote my program assuming the Win32 interface but it could be easily
be
for a different interface."

I agree, using "against" makes the meaning a little less clear to outsiders,
which probably explains the popularity of the expression in geeky circles.
Your suggestion is good, I've also seen "on top of the Win32 interface".

Post by The Other Fran
In your initial suggestion I was tempted to interpret it as "Win32 is a
crappy interface to use" cutting out the preposition altogether. If
that's what it really means, this is much simpler.

I shouldn't have injected my personal bias into the example - bad form!

Andrew

[Jukka Aho]

Post by andrew queisser
This usage of "against" with "interface" has been around for most
of my programming career (ca. 15 yrs).

Perhaps "for" would be better here, or perhaps your suggested

In my opinion, programs aren't written "for" interfaces. They're written
for some specific purpose, and the interface is just means to that end.
Relying on a particular API is a design choice or something mandated by
the host system - a technicality that does not necessarily even show to
the end-user - not the purpose itself.

Writing a program "for" an interface makes it sound like the interface
itself was of some particular importance, and supporting a particualr
interface was a goal in itself. (That might be true in some cases, but
not as a general rule.) If the interfaces need to be mentioned at all,
it is often when the speaker wants to express something about
portability or compatibility: "The program relies heavily on the DirectX
API and thus cannot be easily ported to other platforms." "The
application only uses the POSIX API, not Linux-specific system calls, so
you should be able to compile it on NetBSD, too."

"Written against" sounds metaphorical to me, almost as if we should
imagine two surfaces that are interfacing in a skin-tight contact, with
their every nook and cranny hugging each other, made to fit together
like a cast and a mold.

[The Other Fran]

Post by Jukka Aho

Post by andrew queisser
This usage of "against" with "interface" has been around for most
of my programming career (ca. 15 yrs).

Perhaps "for" would be better here, or perhaps your suggested

In my opinion, programs aren't written "for" interfaces. They're written
for some specific purpose, and the interface is just means to that end.
Relying on a particular API is a design choice or something mandated by
the host system - a technicality that does not necessarily even show to
the end-user - not the purpose itself.
Writing a program "for" an interface makes it sound like the interface
itself was of some particular importance, and supporting a particualr
interface was a goal in itself. (That might be true in some cases, but
not as a general rule.) If the interfaces need to be mentioned at all,
it is often when the speaker wants to express something about
portability or compatibility: "The program relies heavily on the DirectX
API and thus cannot be easily ported to other platforms." "The
application only uses the POSIX API, not Linux-specific system calls, so
you should be able to compile it on NetBSD, too."
"Written against" sounds metaphorical to me, almost as if we should
imagine two surfaces that are interfacing in a skin-tight contact, with
their every nook and cranny hugging each other, made to fit together
like a cast and a mold.

You make a valid point here, though as you say, some plug-ins to
browsers may be written "for" them. They are however written for
certain operating systems e.g Word for Mac, Word for Windows, where
"for" means "to suit those running the given OS"

In this broader sense, programs might be written for a given interface.

TOF

[Stephen Calder]

Post by andrew queisser

Post by trailofdead
You know, by interface is meant a surface forming a commonboundary between
adjacent regions, bodies, substances or phases or similar to that.
and long since i 've been puzzled about seeking a right preposition to
collocate this word, which one should i select ? in, on or at ? or other
prepositions?

And if the interface is that of a software library you use "against", e.g.
"Win32 is a crappy interface to program against".

One computer can interface with another.

[Mark Brader]

Post by trailofdead
You know, by interface is meant a surface forming a commonboundary between
adjacent regions, bodies, substances or phases or similar to that.

Yes.

Post by trailofdead
and long since i 've been puzzled about seeking a right preposition to
collocate this word, which one should i select ? in, on or at ? or other
prepositions?

Whichever one makes sense in the particular context. Why would you think
there can be only one?

Post by trailofdead
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If you're going to post in non-ASCII characters, your article header
needs to identify the character set, or they'll likely be seen as
something else. (I've added a header identifying the character set
as 8859-1 to show you what I saw.) Some old-fashioned people (like me)
may ignore the headers and still not see them.