Unpublished UNO API

Hi Jürgen,

> I am always happy when one of my demo components
developed for 
> StarOffice 6.0 (before OO.org) work with StarOffice 8
as well. I think 
> it can be a good reason for customers to switch to
SO/OO.org using our 
> API (with java for example) because they know that the
implementation of 
> macros, some integration and/or extension is a one time
investment and 
> would work with future versions as well. It is not
really calculable for 
> professional ISV's or bigger companies if they have to
check their code 
> with every new version of the product.
> 
> MS has shown how successful they were with their
compatible API's over 
> years.

Maybe I missed your irony here, but:

Back in the old days I developed some macros for Word 1.0,
which didn't 
run in Word 1.1. After conversion they didn't work in Word
2.0. And 
today those files even don't open (except in OOo  ). I
also did some 
macros in Excel. Then they had a German version where they
had the idea 
to translate the API! (exit loop => verlasse durchlaufe),
then they 
switched back to English (seeing that it was a bad idea). At
some point 
there was also the invention of VBA (AFAIR before it was
some more basic 
Baisc  ), which
was also a change. So, to make a long story short, I 
wouldn't call MS's API in Office very compatible. (I
remember they had 
some lengthy methods, where they only changed the order of
parameters).

Maybe the API stayed stable since I stopped developing MS
Macros (which 
is quite some time ago)

But, I think what is important here: they had conversion
tools, or at 
least documentation what changed and how to migrate. I think
this is a 
crucial part for the acceptance of changed API. If you open
an old 
Macro, get a dialog and say "Yes" and it still
runs, I think nobody 
would object. However, of course, we do not only have
Macros, so we need 
at least migration guides for extension programmers who use
different 
languages.

-Bjoern

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