Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TigerPaw who wrote (44687)	5/11/2000 11:43:00 AM
From: Charles Tutt	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

That doesn't even seem to preclude them from keeping any API they like private to themselves and a few favored friends. After all, that wouldn't be "the software development community at large." In fact, it's almost a tautology that anything that's released to the "community at large" is already generally available. JMHO.

To: TigerPaw who wrote (44687)	5/11/2000 12:31:00 PM
From: mozek	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 74651

TigerPaw, First, I have to state that this post is completely personal opinion combined with speculation. It is in no way representative of any official Microsoft position or based on any legal expertise. Your wording is interesting. I can tell you that from the perspective of an OS developer who created APIs exclusively for internal use (OS only), the primary reason for preserving their undocumented status was that they could not be consistently or safely used by applications across versions of the OS. Of course, if the APIs' disclosure was conditioned upon their use by some/any separately delivered application, it's reasonable to assume that they must be useful in some way by software besides the OS. I have been on both sides of the fence on this. Prior to joining Microsoft, I created software that leveraged undocumented APIs that I ferreted out myself, but I had to jump through a lot of hoops to ensure OS version compatibility. After joining Microsoft, I realized that there was no internal conspiracy to keep useful APIs out of the hands of external developers. It was more an honest attempt to preserve some level of abstraction and safety. App developers, whether inside or outside the company, don't always agree with the OS developers point of abstraction, and they sometimes find ways around it. My bet is that Microsoft's wording was an honest attempt to address the concerns of external developers. Your proposal does seem like a fair attempt to clarify that solution. Mike