3 ms·

I couldn't agree more. Why is the API not public? Is it because some sort of top secret corporate conspiracy? Or is it that management just decided to avoid the

I couldn't agree more. Why is the API not public? Is it because some sort of top secret corporate conspiracy? Or is it that management just decided to avoid the burden of publishing and maintaining an immature or lesser used API? After reading your comment that whole article seemed a little sensationalist

derefr 8y ago
> just decided to avoid the burden of publishing and maintaining an immature or lesser used API "Burden" is an understatement. Any API Microsoft documents becomes part of their ongoing commitment to eternal backward-compatibility. (Heck, even some things they never document at all still end up forced into that commitment, like the internal registry hives in Windows 95.) So Microsoft do everything they can to only document what they're absolutely sure they have in a good, stable, "won't regret later that we didn't fix it some more before setting it in stone" state.
- praseodym 8y ago
  While that may be true for the Win32 APIs, it is certainly not true for their cloud-based products. They’ve had some very poor APIs for Windows Live Mail (predecessor of Office 365 for education) which were also quickly deprecated and replaced.
- lixtra 8y ago
  They could just flag it “volatile”, “unstable” or something. It’s very unlikely that Microsoft did not properly document the api internally and as you see it’s leaking out anyway.
  - izacus 8y ago
    If you'll ever develop a single simple API you'll find out that doesn't work at all. People will use unstable APIs and people will blame YOU and only you when they break.
- voltagex_ 8y ago
  Exchange WS and Lync/Communicator would disagree with you re: eternal backward-compatibility.
tallanvor 8y ago
There are a lot of reasons that it might not be public, but a conspiracy is quite low on the list. My guess is that it's due to one of the following: * The API isn't considered beta yet. * This was created as somewhat of a side project and hasn't been formalized yet. * Documenting it is on the backlog. * It's meant for internal use in that they may be building in tools in the Security and Compliance center that will be calling it.

derefr 8y ago

> just decided to avoid the burden of publishing and maintaining an immature or lesser used API "Burden" is an understatement. Any API Microsoft documents becomes part of their ongoing commitment to eternal backward-compatibility. (Heck, even some things they never document at all still end up forced into that commitment, like the internal registry hives in Windows 95.) So Microsoft do everything they can to only document what they're absolutely sure they have in a good, stable, "won't regret later that we didn't fix it some more before setting it in stone" state.

praseodym 8y ago
While that may be true for the Win32 APIs, it is certainly not true for their cloud-based products. They’ve had some very poor APIs for Windows Live Mail (predecessor of Office 365 for education) which were also quickly deprecated and replaced.
lixtra 8y ago
They could just flag it “volatile”, “unstable” or something. It’s very unlikely that Microsoft did not properly document the api internally and as you see it’s leaking out anyway.
- izacus 8y ago
  If you'll ever develop a single simple API you'll find out that doesn't work at all. People will use unstable APIs and people will blame YOU and only you when they break.
voltagex_ 8y ago
Exchange WS and Lync/Communicator would disagree with you re: eternal backward-compatibility.

tallanvor 8y ago

There are a lot of reasons that it might not be public, but a conspiracy is quite low on the list. My guess is that it's due to one of the following: * The API isn't considered beta yet. * This was created as somewhat of a side project and hasn't been formalized yet. * Documenting it is on the backlog. * It's meant for internal use in that they may be building in tools in the Security and Compliance center that will be calling it.