opinions about Hailstorm

But still signifyin' – “Now the opinions about Hailstorm are flying. The whole discussion of “secret APIs” is particularly funny. I remember about two years ago, my brother and I decided we wanted to use the MSN Messenger protocol for P2P communications. It took us about 40 minutes to look through the type library and figure out how to do it (with no inside “special” knowledge of Messenger required). I wondered for two years why nobody was using this as a platform. Now I know why — apparently people have been convinced that the only software tools that are customizable must be C++ source code that compiles under gcc. The sheer simplicity of a language-neutral type library throws people into cognitive arrest.” [Better Living Through Software]

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