running Linux at work with Windows apps

[bscott at ntisys.com]

On Mon, 11 Nov 2002, at 2:12pm, eprice at ptc.com wrote:
>>   Just FYI, the best term is probably "Win32".  That is what Microsoft
>> officially calls it, and what most third-party developers use as well.
> 
> Why the "32"?  Not so much "what does 32" stand for, but was there a
> non-arbitrary reason for appending it to the abbreviation "Win" to refer
> to software making use of their APIs?

  It comes from the fact that the Win32 API was first developed on Windows
NT, which was the first purely Microsoft OS that supported using the 32-bit
addressing capabilities of the Intel 80386 processor.  (I think OS/2 did it
before WinNT, but OS/2 was a joint project between IBM and MSFT.)  The old
Windows APIs developed for the DOS-based GUIs (Win 3.x and prior) were
retroactively christened "Win16".

  Of course, the Win32 API is really a family of APIs.  It exists in dozens
of semi-incompatible versions.  It isn't even a case of new function calls
being added that don't exist on older platforms; rather, each release (and
often Service Pack) of Windows behaves differently.  The best known example
of this is probably DirectX, which was available on Win95/98 long before it
worked well on WinNT.  This makes software configuration management on
Microsoft platforms a nightmare.  And, since you cannot get the source,
third-party developers often have to resort to reverse-engineering just to
figure out what Microsoft changed.

-- 
Ben Scott <bscott at ntisys.com>
| The opinions expressed in this message are those of the author and do not |
| necessarily represent the views or policy of any other person, entity or  |
| organization.  All information is provided without warranty of any kind.  |