Be careful out there

[Juan Lang]

Unfortunately, there is some Microsoft code available on the Internet.
 More unfortunately, Google has indexed some of it.  I was searching
for an undocumented function and ran across something that seemed to
describe it.  I clicked on the link, and fortunately the indexed page
was just a reference to the actual source file, because the source
file was Microsoft's.  (The source file was also available.  No, I
didn't look at it.)

Be very careful:  reading Microsoft's source code is a clear way to
taint yourself as a developer.
--Juan

[Andrew Fenn]

Actually I wanted to ask a question about this..

When implementing an API do we have to change the variable names from
those given in the msdn documentation?

More specifically, the typedefs for the xinput structs ( documentation
here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb173049(VS.85).aspx ).
Do I have the change the names of these or can I just keep them the
same?

Regards,
Andrew

On Thu, Oct 2, 2008 at 11:10 PM, Juan Lang  wrote:
> Unfortunately, there is some Microsoft code available on the Internet.
>  More unfortunately, Google has indexed some of it.  I was searching
> for an undocumented function and ran across something that seemed to
> describe it.  I clicked on the link, and fortunately the indexed page
> was just a reference to the actual source file, because the source
> file was Microsoft's.  (The source file was also available.  No, I
> didn't look at it.)
>
> Be very careful:  reading Microsoft's source code is a clear way to
> taint yourself as a developer.
> --Juan

[Kornél Pál]

Andrew Fenn wrote:
> Actually I wanted to ask a question about this..
>
> When implementing an API do we have to change the variable names from
> those given in the msdn documentation?
>
> More specifically, the typedefs for the xinput structs ( documentation
> here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb173049(VS.85).aspx ).
> Do I have the change the names of these or can I just keep them the
> same?

If you change these name your implementation will only be binary 
compatible but source code has to be modified to work with your headers. 
So you should use the same names in header files.

Kornél

[Roderick Colenbrander]

The names in the headers don't matter to programs which use them and source which is compiled using them. Only the order matters. Using the same names is fine.

Roderick
> Andrew Fenn wrote:
> > Actually I wanted to ask a question about this..
> >
> > When implementing an API do we have to change the variable names from
> > those given in the msdn documentation?
> >
> > More specifically, the typedefs for the xinput structs ( documentation
> > here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb173049(VS.85).aspx ).
> > Do I have the change the names of these or can I just keep them the
> > same?
>
> If you change these name your implementation will only be binary 
> compatible but source code has to be modified to work with your headers. 
> So you should use the same names in header files.
>
> Kornél