Are proficiencies feats?

[Cybris75]

Browsing throught the SRD I found the following in the description of the Armor Proficiency (Light) feat:



Special
All characters except wizards, sorcerers, and monks automatically have Armor Proficiency (light) as a bonus feat. They need not select it.


I was surprised by this - I have actually never read the description of this feat before. The other armor and weapon proficiencies have similar text. My PHB has the same texts.

Does this actually mean that proficiencies are feats?
Does this apply to non-core classes as well?

My interest in the matter is academic, because I'm trying to write a D&D character generator and need to know if proficiencies are feats or some other kind of object.
I'm sure other people will be interested in this because of the dark chaos feat shuffle...

[Tommy2255]

Yes, they're feats.

If you Dark Chaos Shuffle them, then any DM worth his dice will straight up murder you with the DMG.

[Kelb_Panthera]

The armor proficiencies are, the weapon proficiencies are not.

On a similar note, the weapon proficiencies that elves get are also feats.

Unless you're going to be using the DCFS this is largely irrelevant to both character generation and general gameplay.