Interesting articles I came across in July.
I found Joel Spolsky’s blog with some interesting articles. I will probably circle back to his blog, later in time.
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NDAs and Contracts That You Should Never Sign
A short and effective overview of how an NDA limits you in the end. My takeaway: you never know what the future may bring, don’t limit yourself with an NDA.
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How Microsoft Lost the API War
A history lesson, focusing around Microsoft and their stance on the APIs an operation system supplies. The big question is: how can you move developers to switch to a new language or API?
I believe a language is, in essence, just a tool, a way to communicate our intent. An OS-specific language that also exposes the OS’ API is nice to have. But that language may not be the right tool for the job. Newer languages appear every once in a while, solving specific issues or providing new, easy to use or fast functionality. An OS’s API must be open for that kind of flexibility. To have developers, and especially companies, invest time and money into a new language it must provide a convincing argument over the current state. Who wants to refactor their code just because your OS said so?