Peter Beutner wrote:
For me, the main problem is that there are ReactOS developers who think that examining Windows assembly to write ReactOS code is a proper way to do things.
I think the problem is that the way you describe is totally legal in most countries. In fact, afaik it is only in the USA where you have this explicit distinction between clean("chinese wall") and "dirty" reverse engineering. Which reminds me of a similiar thread on lkml about which country's laws actually applies
This is not simply a problem of what is legal and not in different countries.
We don't want to be associated project that is perceived to be pushing the edge of what's legally (or even socially) acceptable. Doing so would encourage FUD about Wine and that's a good way to lose developers and users.
Furthermore, by examining and recoding somebody else's work, you neither gain a good understanding of how it works, nor lay the foundation for somebody else to fix it without repeating what you did.
Using test cases to determine the behaviour of Windows provides a way to verify both the code that's written today, and code that will be written a year later. It's not just legally better, it's easier to do, easier for others to understand, and gives us a way to verify our code.
Mike