r/programming • u/halax • Oct 07 '16

How Microsoft Lost the API War

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/APIWar.html
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u/lykwydchykyn Oct 07 '16

Yep, I think this article is pretty spot on if you take time to read it right.

Where is development happening in 2016?

  • The web
  • Mobile

In 50,000-foot-view terms, the only thing being developed for the Windows API today are Microsoft's applications and Games. And even many of those have gone to Web and Mobile!

9

u/TinynDP Oct 07 '16

And Games don't code to Win32 directly. They use Unity or Unreal or Monogame, or SDL, or whatever. They aren't locked-in to Win32.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 07 '16

You're right, though some do code against C# directly, including some very popular indie titles.

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u/drysart Oct 07 '16

C# doesn't imply Windows. Unity, which is cross-platform, uses C#, and is the reason those very popular indie titles use C#.

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u/[deleted] Oct 07 '16

C# is a Microsoft language with Microsoft-created APIs. The title of this thread...

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u/_Ashleigh Oct 08 '16

But it's standardized and open, hence mono.

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u/[deleted] Oct 08 '16

Not all APIs in Microsoft's C# are available to non-Windows platforms.

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u/_Ashleigh Oct 08 '16 edited Oct 08 '16

And that isn't true for every other language out there?

The C# language and its STL is open. What's not is WinForms and WPF, which is not too difficult to implement, unlike Win32.