This document, the CLIM Release 2 Specification, is intended for vendors. While it does define the Application Programmer's Interface (API), that is, the functionality that a customer/consumer would use to write an application, it also defines the names and functionality of some internal parts of CLIM. These "portals" in implementation space allow one vendor to extend, for example, the output record mechanism and have it work with another vendor's implementation of incremental redisplay. We have attempted to carefully identify the appropriate "portals" so that the API can be implemented efficiently, but we have also tried not to overconstrain the specification so that it restricts creativity of implementation or the possibility for extension. This also affects the more sophisticated application writers who want to go a little below the published API but still want portable applications. This document defines which functionality is part of the advertised API, and which is part of the internal protocols. [annotate]
In this document, we refer to three different audiences. A CLIM user is a person who uses an application program that was written using CLIM. A CLIM programmer is a person who writes application programs using CLIM. A CLIM implementor is a programmer who implements CLIM or extends it in some non-trivial way. [annotate]