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It’s a DSL by definition because a function provided by an external library cannot be a language primitive in the host language, or else it wouldn’t need to be an external library! Unless we’re talking about a LISP but we’re not.

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All libraries are DSLs, then? The initial claim was:

> you can't really implement it in a library in a normal programming [...] you have to implement it in a programming language, at least an embedded domain-specific language

So which is it?

No lol not all libraries are DSLs, we’re talking specifically about libraries which provide functions allowing you to construct a computational graph. These libraries are DSLs, not host language primitives.

What's the difference between a library function and a DSL library? What's a library function that's also a host language primitive?

A DSL lib is a subset of “all possible function libs” and there is no such thing as a function library which is a host language primitive by definition. You can’t be a primitive of a language if you’re implemented in a library for that language.

regexps, html, and css2 are also dsls despite not providing functions allowing you to construct a computational graph, but i agree that at the point where you have a graph of computations you have accidentally a programming language

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