Forwarded message:

From: Matthew James Gering <mgering@ecosystems.net> Subject: RE: GPL & commercial software, the critical distinction (fwd) Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1998 18:41:25 -0700

Jim Choate wrote:

...

The only objection to releasing an API is to stifle competition, *THAT* is a bad thing.

There are a number of other reasons -- principally support and backwards compatibility costs. If you release an API for a commercial application for ISVs, you better make sure it is relatively bug-free and mature. As soon as someone else's code relies on that API, you are stuck with making sure it continues to work as the product evolves.

This is bogus reasoning. If the API is released there is *more* motivation for the original distributor to keep backward compatibility and bug-free. If it isn't some pissed off set of programmers will write a replacement. Furthermore the motivation to keep future compatibility is also increased. You want quality code that is bullet-proof then release the API and let the fittest survive. If nothing else it's going to determine if your as bad-assed programmer as you think you are.

There is nothing wrong with public and private APIs, and we hope that the ad hoc private APIs from some midnight-oil-burning-hack to get the product to ship on time that have useful functionality will eventually be integrated into a mature public API.

If you release the API you'll find those midnight hacks go away, *not* increase as you seem to be claiming. The history of quality over time of the Open Software producers amply proves this. Solaris, HP, BSD, NT, etc. *wish* they were as stable and popular as Linux.

Modular OOP design means you have lots of interfaces, you don't necessarily want people to be able to dig in-between all the pieces of your program -- often you cannot protect application/data integrity if they do.

Malarky. If you're data structures are that fragile then you need to go back to the drawing board.

...

Had Microsoft, for example, been required to publish their API's by the market we wouldn't be spending all this effort

You state free-market and then you are *requiring* someone to do something? How do you resolve that contradiction? Require = Force != Free[dom]

Free-market *requires* fair competition, don't blame that requirement on me I had nothing to do with it. Free-market does not mean carte blanche as to what manufacturers can do, it means there are no outside regulations applied. It says *nothing* about internal regulation applied by either the producer or the consumer. If you are seriously saying that the only workable market scheme is to let people cheat and steal from others (which is what poorly written and unreliable code does) then you need to quit typing and starting thinking.

As far as *commercial* software vendors go, Microsoft is one of the better companies for publishing APIs and creating useful APIs and tools

Malarky. Microsoft has so many hidden, undocumented, incomplete API's it isn't even funny.

for Rapid Application Development. Do you subscribe to MSDN? Please do before you crucify Microsoft for lack of APIs, if anything they have too many.

Subscribe to the MSDN? I work for Tivoli in Austin as a Senior Software Verification Engineer. I spend about 8-10 hours a day banging on software running on: SunOS 4.x Solaris 2.x HP/UX 9.x HP/UX 10.x AIX 3.x AIX 4.x WinNT 4.0 WinNT 3.51 W4W W3.11 OS/2 3.x OS/2 4.x AS/400 Novell 3.x Novell 4.x IRIX 4.x IRIX 5.x DG Unix Digital Unix NextStep networked via, TCP/IP IPX SNA Token Ring databases we support, Oracle Sybase Informix DB2 DBMX I've also worked on: Pick Linux (since 0.42) QNX SCO Interactive BSD CP/M C64 AmigaDOS 4DOS It requires that I comprehend and write shell scripts, Perl, C, C++, REXX, 4TEST, CORBA IDL on these platforms. I started analog and digital electronics in 1969, I started programming in BASIC/8 on a PDP 8/e in 1973. I built my first 6800 based machines from the ground up in 1974 when I was a freshman in high school. I've been employed in a hardware or software position since 1978 when I graduated high school. I've owned more different types of machines than I care to remember. I've worked in a science museum building 40 exhibits over 7 years (2 of which are in the Smithsonian, 1 is at the Exploratorium and 1 is at the Chicago Museum of Science and Technology, and I worked on the IBM Leonardo exhibit.) and had the pleasure of running their computer group for 5 of those years. I taught astronomy at the museum for 3 years and explained exhibits to the visitors for 7 years. I've been using MS Dos and Windows since the 1.0 days. I worked for the DoD building non-Von Neumann computers (RTL architecture). I hold a NASA certification (expired) for space rated soldering and mechanical assembly. I used to work on cesium beam atomic clocks and LORAN-C equipment. I run my own custom development business since 1984, and it's been on the internet since 1994 via ISDN. I've been running a BBS of some sort since '76 and had one continously online since '83. I helped develop TurBoard the first NAPLPS bbs software. I program in assembly on PDP/VAX 11, 6800, 6502, 8080, z80, 68k, 80x86, Sparc RISC, both types of POWER chips, & 8051. My current assignment is to build an automated software test engine that will test *all* the above OS'es with all the Tivoli products (are you familiar with Tivoli?), with all the point-patches, maintenance releases, and service packs installed in a user defined combinatorial environment. Microsoft's API's suck rocks. What do you do for a living? ____________________________________________________________________ The seeker is a finder. Ancient Persian Proverb The Armadillo Group ,::////;::-. James Choate Austin, Tx /:'///// ``::>/|/ ravage@ssz.com www.ssz.com .', |||| `/( e\ 512-451-7087 -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- --------------------------------------------------------------------