RE: What are "advanced" API topics? + XML - where's the beef?

["Glenn Maxey" <glenn -dot- maxey -at- voyanttech -dot- com>]

The threads of "XML - where's the beef?" were interesting. To combine
threads with "What are advanced API topics?", I'll predict the future.

As other postings mention, I think that XML will provide only marginal added
value to documentation.

Where I think that XML will really come into its own is in:

  OPEN (& closed) SOURCE PROGRAMMING

===========================================

[Hence, an advanced API topic is the marriage of XML and source code.]

===========================================

** Imagine that developers were required to comment their code (and/or work
with tech writers to have their code commented).

** Imagine that their code comments were required to adhere to some
extraction tool syntax (like Doxygen), which can parse code and create
online documentation systems containing both the actual code prototypes and
code comments (if not marked-up copies of the source files themselves, as
well).

** Imagine that sections of the code comments used XML tags (and that the
output from the code extraction tool was an XML online documentation
system).

What we would have would be source code that is truly re-usable, because
tools would be able to search large databases (CVS repositories, even) and
find useful, commented code fragments.

We would then be on the verge of having Code Generation tools that can find,
combine, and compile any number of permutations of distributed source code.
(Wishful thinking with today's software, I know. Gotta have a dream,
though.)

===========================================

If I could start a business that would make me a gazillionaire, topple
Microsoft, and change the world for the better, I would create a mondo
software public library.

-- Other than the effort to comment and appropriately XML tag the code, the
cost to check-in code would be:

 ** nothing if it is untested.
 ** something if we test it.
 ** something more if we test it and certify it.
 ** something even more if we test it, certify it, and compile & package it.

-- It would cost little (or nothing) to check out code, but small royalties
would be imposed on all for-profit derivative products. The royalties would
funnel in part back to the developer(s)/company and in part to my wallet.

-- It would cost something (but significantly less than Version 1.0
prices -- pennies on the dollar) to get tested, certified, and finished
product executables. (Of course, pricing goes down from there for
uncertified and for untested versions.) Royalties are funneled back to the
developer(s)/company (and to my wallet, of course.)

-- The "archeology" division of my company would actively solicit source
code for outdated, unsupported software (like DOS, WordPerfect 5.0, BIOS,
etc.) We would comment and make this available.

-- Another division would facilitate custom programming. Maybe the retired
engineer who did portions of WordPerfect 4.2 (distributed on a single 3.5"
720K floppy) wants something profitable to fill in the gaps in their monthly
social security checks.

In the future, there should be little reason
 ** why hardware can't be supported much longer.
 ** why you can't get the software to do what you need it to do.
 ** why you can't affordably get custom software.
 ** why your data isn't compatible anymore.
 ** why you can't do it yourself if you're so inclined.

Copyright/patent laws today are way out-of-kilter allowing corporations to
protect things for up to 70 years beyond the life of the originator. They
are against the spirit of the original copyright laws (which protected
innovative ideas for a short period of time [initially 7-10 years] and then
allowed for innovation on top of those ideas). When you think that
musicians/authors "sell their souls" for a comparitive pitance to the
music/book industries who then maintain the rights and earnings for decades,
the mondo software public library (expanded into other areas) could be a
mechanism to put things right.

In the future, I would like to lobby congress (or some governing agency) to
pass laws that require all published (software) works to be made available
in the library: executables, DLL's, object, and source code.

If it is still under some form of protection, it could for a short time
limit the source code exposure (unless appropriate fees/royalties are paid)
or it could limit check-in of altered source code (unless the new
implementation is truly unique and better). In any event, it has to expose
the interface so that others can build on it.

Because proportional royalties are paid for derivative products -- no
revenue lost --, there would be less incentive for proprietary solutions. If
the solution works, is open, and nobody is being ripped off for their
creative efforts, there would be less incentive to "re-invent the wheel" and
more incentive "to spend our time building on what already works."

Et cetera.

There are lots of possibilities in how a library could truly leverage the
synergy of software development to benefit the entire planet.

The keys to this better and brighter future are:

 ** knowing what is there [XML] and
 ** what it does [API documentation and code comments].

Glenn Maxey
Voyant Technologies, Inc.
Tel. +1 303.223.5164
Fax. +1 303.223.5275
glenn -dot- maxey -at- voyanttech -dot- com



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