Microsoft on Tuesday disclosed technical information vital to allowing third-party developers to create software that works well with Windows. Completion of the disclosure clears the way for the release of Windows XP Service Pack 1, the first major update to the operating system Microsoft launched in October. Among other things, Service Pack 1 contains a new control for setting default middleware programs, such as Web browsers and instant messaging software.
Microsoft Discloses More Windows Code
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Eugenia Loli
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I hope this helps the Wine project so that we can have a 1.0 release sometime in the near future.
I won’t think this will help Wine one bit.
Can you imagine the NDA you’d have to sign just to get a peek at the code?
Who exactly are they releasing the source code too? I don’t imagine it would be available for download on their website ?
Even if the Wine team could see it, does anyone think it would help any ?
The problem is that MS hides some of its APIs which let its programs run faster than 3rd party apps. If they disclose these APIs it could be better for everyone.
But it wouldn’t be good for Microsoft, would it? Sorry to say, but this isn’t happening today, or tommorow.
The problem is that MS hides some of its APIs which let its programs run faster than 3rd party apps.
Yes the operating system probably uses different APIs than application developers would use and that’s because they’re internal, meant just for the core OS. MS applications uses public APIs.
If they disclose these APIs it could be better for everyone.
No that would be hell. Software developers usually hide a lot of code from the public to hide the implementation and just show the specs. That way the implementation can change anytime without breaking apps that depend on it. They only break if you change the specification.
If software developers make applications that depends on the internal functions of one specific OS, they would probably break when a new version of the OS comes out and I hope you understand that’s not better for everyone.
But then again, you probably just want to bash MS about something you’ve read on the internet but you don’t really understand.
Max: I hope this helps the Wine project so that we can have a 1.0 release sometime in the near future.
Doubt it. You failed to realize that many parts of Win32 is covered by licenses, and there is no wording from the DOJ allowing third parties to use them without paying any royalties.
Max: The problem is that MS hides some of its APIs which let its programs run faster than 3rd party apps. If they disclose these APIs it could be better for everyone.
Nice claim. Now, where’s the proof that Microsoft used it in its own applications? For sure it is used in applications integrated/bundled with Windows, but other apps like Office, Works etc.?
Besides, you can’t really blame Microsoft solely for the lack of speed of its competitors. Mozilla for example uses an XML-based XUL engine instead of the native one, only to ease porting. OpenOffice.org uses its own APIs, like UNO, instead of the native APIs, again, to ease porting. These are the two major competitors. I could list on and on, but if you ask me, I would blame the incompetent competitors.
Besides, ever notice there are some really notorius applications on Windows, many of them really really obstuctive? Just imagine AOL annoying you even more once they found out more hidden APIs…. Heck, even Apple doesn’t really in full all of its APIs. It breeds havoc.
I think it would be hard or even impossible for Microsoft to use hidden APIs. All you would have to do to verify it is to disassemble some Microsoft executable and look for calls to undocumented dll functions. This process could be made automatic so I think it would be hard for them to keep the hidden APIs hidden for very long.
Microsoft is not hiding APIs from developers for unfair competition. Nobody knows that for sure, it is just a claim, which is not proven, and high probably a false accusation.
Besides this type of stupid claims, there are very good reasons why an OS developer may want to hide some APIs. The most obvious reason is security, but there are more. To force programmers for a standard way of interacting with the OS, so that applications do no crash when you make a change in these underlying APIs. One example is from Sun. Sun hides PlainSocketImpl class from developers for similar reasons. Everybody should use Socket directly. If Sun makes this highly public, then developers may develop programs which will not be compatible in a future change.
It is amazing to see people talking about these issues without understanding what is really going on and actually knowing anything at all. Just say something against Microsoft and it will look nice. That’s so stupid.
Is anyone really going to copy Windows code if/ever it is released to the public? As a previous poster stated, alot of applications use there own APIs for cross platform porting, so why would they suddenly jump ship to use super secret Microsoft APIs? I really dislike Microsoft for many reasons, not the least of which is what the forced upon Be Inc., but I still don’t see how this is going to help matters.
Microsoft will still be the 800 gorilla in a buisness suit forcing there will on every hardware vendor in the world.
Did you guys look at what was released? Its just documentation for functions and interfaces that were previously undocumented, but have always been there. Looking at it, 80% of it is just utility type functions.. albeit some useful.. i’m a little disappointed as i thought it’d have been better than this.
🙁
Yeah, the title of the article seems completely misleading. From what I could tell, absolutely no Windows “code” was released; just documentation. It’s quite a baby-step for Microsoft, if you ask me.
For sure it is used in applications integrated/bundled with Windows, but other apps like Office, Works etc.?
Yes, Office is integrated into Windows and parts of Office are launched when you boot your computer.
Look on what’s released !
It’s just additional documentation to SDK, not a source code.
Microsoft is not going to release sorce code, they are looking for a way to get out. In the worst case, they create a new app and a few DLLs and open the code.
Let you dream about MS publishing their TCP IP stack code, or IE rendering engine.
It’s lost battle, get over it.
Camel: Yes, Office is integrated into Windows and parts of Office are launched when you boot your computer.
Office is not “integrated” into windows any more than any other application just because some office stuff runs at boot. Real Player stuff runs at boot, so does QuickTime 6.
Office uses standard Windows APIs, documented in MSDN, to interact with the OS. There is no big mystery API set, and there is no /NOBUGS compiler switch to cl.exe.
For years people complained about Microsoft not documenting all APIs in Windows. Now that they take some measures to document some missing parts people complain that they did not open the source to those APIs.
Why would anyone need the source code to the rendering engine of IE? What does that have to do with “hidden APIs”?
I guess you’ll be happy once the whole OS is open-sourced. And what’s the point of that? Isn’t Windows bad and unusable, a “kiddie system”, at it has been called on this very forum?
All a developer needs is the API, a well-documented API.
I doubt Microsoft are using secret APIs to make Office run better. Someone starting from scratch could make a better Office using only the *published* APIs. If they were using some back doors into Windows I’d expect Office to perform far better than it does currently.
Come on, Microsoft! Enhance Office with some secret code!
Let you dream about MS publishing their TCP IP stack code
The TCP stack wasn’t written by MS, they use the BSD one
I don’t think Microsoft uses the BSD code anymore. It would probably have been better if they did. And I think they only used it as a back-end for another protocol, but I don’t remember which.
Come on, Microsoft! Enhance Office with some secret code!
That would be nice, because finally I have something to be anti-MS about… 😀
The amazing this is that the only competitor of Office that uses Win32 publised APIs (well, mostly) is Word Perfect Office, and from the little I have use, it is a few times faster than Office XP.
Camel:”Yes, Office is integrated into Windows and parts of Office are launched when you boot your computer”
Just because Office launches at reboot you think that it is integrated into the OS! I think then QuickTime is also built into the Windows too, and Yahoo Messenger too.
Microsoft Office is not built into the OS. I didn’t even heard such a claim anywhere else. Is it that easy to make things up without understanding anything?
It seems that Microsoft became a tool for people who doesn’t know much about things to say something in the public, and feel important because they just said something very true, although it is very untrue!