Microsoft promises to deliver interoperability documents by March 2009

Microsoft has been slow in complying with the US Department of Justice's 2001 order for Microsoft to provide documentation on how its programs interoperate, but it's now promising to have them delivered by March 2009.

Whatever. It has taken Microsoft many years and it still can't - or, rather, won't - provide documentation that it must already have internally?

Come on, Microsoft! Many software vendors would like to see their applications - open source and otherwise - work even better on Windows or with Office. This intransigence doesn't just hurt you. It hurts your would-be partners. It hurts your customers. Start acting like a grown-up that can share the sandbox.

[orcmid]

Uh, Matt, the documents you are talking about are new system (overview) documents that were added to the 41,000 pages of technical documentation that have been available since September 2007 and are now available for online, public download. The first overview document was introduced at the same time, and the expanded set is a result of review of the overview drafts. These system documents are very important, even though the need was recognized very recently, but this does not mean there isn't substantial material already available.

Finally, this has nothing to do with what would have been internal documentation, if any. This kind of documentation is only needed to support external interoperability and usage of protocols. If there was anything internal, it was probably used up in the 5,000 page original technical documents made available in 2002.

Finally, the APIs necessary for operating application on WIndows and in Office have been available for years and continue to be available as part of the standard MSDN on-line documentation. There don't seem to be any API compliance issues at this time. It is all about communication protocols used among products.