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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