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| APIs and DLLs |
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Robots commercially available are either meant
for the high school kids to experiment with or for slightly older ones to program and use.
For the former, a GUI is usually available through which the kids can work with the robot
in a predefined and largely limited manner. But for the more interested ones, the
manufacturers usually provide the API (Application Programming Interface), which is either
in the form of .DLL (Dynamic Link Library) files or in the form of a Library of files in
some programming language acting as a wrapper above the DLLs. The .DLL files are basically
a collection in binary format of the functions that can be invoked from a programming
language to control the finer or more basic functions of the robot, than can be controlled
using the GUI. General method is to include the DLLs in your program and then use the
functions that are supported. If a Library is provided as an added abstraction or a
wrapper above the DLLs, then the library files are to be included in place of the .DLL
files and the Library functions can then be used for controlling the robot. Some
documentation is also available along with the API explaining how to use it in your code
and what all functions are there. These functions need not necessarily be callable from
any programming language, i.e. some manufacturer might provide the API for C and some
manufacturer might provide the API for Visual Basic. Some might provide it for both. The
API functions can be called from that programming language only, which the API supports. |
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API being available, it may seem trivial to
use it to control the robot. But the complexity involved is only visible, when someone
tries to program the robot using the API. The API can sometime consist of over thousand
functions distributed in multiple DLLs or even more Library files. For a middle level
programmer, it is like wasting a lot of time understanding an API of this magnitude for
every other robot that he wants to connect to the Internet. To save the programmer from
this entire unwanted ordeal, we have formulated a Robot
Class. |
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