This will give names and comments for addresses in already dissassembled code.

I have no idea what you are talking about I'm afraid, but assuming you are trying to say that people who have already backwards engineered to code (which is never 100% accurate anyway) would then have the ability to better understand it...

..why would that have any impact at all? If you've already got the code, then you don't need documented API's to inderstand it. If you're clever enough and willing to put in enough time to dissasemble a pice of code, then you'r3e clever enough to read and understand it once you have it. API's won't help you with that process.

MS is going to release the source code.
http://www.the-inquirer.com/?article=29253

Yeah, right... That's just a joke, and a really bad one at that.
Here's the Microsoft Press Release: Microsoft Goes Beyond EU Decision by Offering Windows Source Code.

You won't even get the source unless you have € 50,000 to spare, and comply with a number of rather restrictive conditions.

That's NOT what the EU demanded - The EU wants the documented specifications, so anyone can write code that interoperates with Windows systems.

If you do not have access to any form of documented specifications, but have to figure out how everything works from just the source code, then how are you to know which part of the code is the bugs, and which part is the features?

Id say what the EU is demanding is fair.

I think that depends on whose viewpoint ur looking at the issue from.

I think MS programers have left alot of info in the source, enough any other MS program can use it. I sure it's more than enough for the EU to get off thier case.

Dissassembling Compiled / EXE or DLL code of Microsofts is (i think) against the end user licence (it don't stop you doing it lol) but i think it is against the agreement,

I didn't get 1/2 of what that article was saying, Giving out code of an OS is like giving my Spinal chord And Fluid to a 1/2 dead granny that some how "needs" a replacement because the "NHS" says so, it isn't happening IMHO,

I Don't See how EU comes into this... unless its some *** trying to scrownge money from a corprate giant, now its the baby stealing candy back from the Adult.

Documentation is fair enough giving Functions and how to call them and use them, from what i read they wanted Source Code to the OS not the Documentation but i haven't read it in detail (Skim read)

Thats just my 2 cents if you want free go Open Source, End of story , PERIOD.

Jim,

Nope, they did not want the source code, they wanted the documentation allright.

Compare the situation to the TCP/IP specs (i.e., the protocol that drives the internet), if you will: Any computer system that wants to do anything on the internet will have to implement a TCP/IP stack.

So, anyone who wants to develop such a system, and wants to do it reliably, will have to have access to the technical specifications of the TCP/IP communications protocol; some sample source code may help, but if you have nothing but the source code, and have no access to the specifications to which the code was written, you will have an awfully hard time figuring it out!

Similarly, anyone who wants to develop a computer system that can talk to Windows systems should have access to the communications protocols required to do it. Just the source code won't cut it.

Microsoft doesn't give out the technical documentation of the protocols, but only the source code--and, then, only to qualifying organisations that are prepared to pay a €50,000 (that's fifty thousand euros) fee! But no-one wanted the source code; in fact, once you get access to the source code, you are, for all practical purposes, banned from implementing the protocols in any other system, since Microsoft will then undoubtedly accuse you of copyright infingement--after all, you read their code, and then ported it into your newly developed system, didn't you? In addition, if you pay them their €50,000 (and, I'll repeat, that's fifty thousand euros) fee, you will be obliged to sign a license agreement, and chances are that your rights to use the code will be pretty limited; so if you subsequently dare implement a potentially competing system, you will be accused of violating the terms of the licensing agreement as well.

Seems the EC is none too happy,
http://www.the-inquirer.com/?article=29294

Microsoft may have briefed hacks and others on the elements of source code it is prepared to give its competitors, said an EC representative, but as far as the organisation was concerned it has still not complied with the terms of the agreement


The general counsel of Microsoft, asked about its decision to make the source code announcement, said the firm wanted to move away from talking about technicalities of source code. The Vole is fully committed to complying with the Commission's demands. It had offered to license the source code to competitors because that was the clearest way of complying. Vole had done everything the EC had asked. "Source code is the ultimate documentation."

They never will end this, they just want money.