From: Matthew James Gering <mgering@ecosystems.net>
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1998 20:43:19 +0800
To: "Cypherpunks (E-mail)" <cypherpunks@cyberpass.net>
Subject: RE: GPL & commercial software, the critical distinction (fwd)
Message-ID: <33CCFE438B9DD01192E800A024C84A19284704@mossbay.chaffeyhomes.com>
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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.

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.

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.

It's like custom software versus shrink-wrap. I write a lot of custom
software, it works for what it needs to do for a specific scenario, if
that changes I modify and recompile. There is a *lot* of work -- time,
money, *my* cost -- to take that custom application and make it flexible
and generic enough to be shrink-wrap and work in all scenarios. And if I
don't do it well enough I have a major support/liability problem. Same
applies to public vs private APIs.

> The idea from a free-market perspective:

> 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]

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

> Bottem line, if you believe in a free-market (which requires fair
> competition to work and prevent monopolies)

Pure speculative nonsense contrary to empirical evidence. Market
distortions the government creates are far worse than any Wonderland
monopoly you can dream up that will exist in a true free market.

	Matt