RE: Is MS preimplementing future WinSock features?

Joe Barrera (joebar@microsoft.com)
Wed, 29 Jan 1997 20:24:48 -0800


Note, the issue here is not actually "pre-implementing" of Winsock 2, but
rather the back-propagating features from Winsock 2 into Winsock 1.1.

This story puzzles me. Winsock uses a versioning handshake so applications
can dynamically detect and use the most up-to-date version of Winsock
installed on the system. So what use would a back-propagated version of
Winsock 1.1 serve? The app writer should just compile and link against
Winsock 2, and fall back to 1.1 calls as necessary if the handshake to
Winsock 2.0 failed. The Winsock 2.0 headers and libraries have, I believe,
been shipping with Visual C++ since 4.0, and in the Win32 SDK for quite a
while as well. They are also available from www.stardust.com.

Note, BTW, that Winsock is just one of many open standards that Microsoft
uses. Oh shit, I keep forgetting, "Open" really is just a code-word for
"Unix". And even if Winsock started as just a clone of BSD sockets, the
three characters "Win" invalidate any claims of openness that Winsock might
otherwise have.

- Joe

Joseph S. Barrera III (joebar@microsoft.com)
http://research.microsoft.com/research/barc/joebar
Phone, Redmond: (206) 936-3837; San Francisco: (415) 778-8227
Pager (100 char max): 1338993@roam.pagemart.net or (800) 864-8444
Telepathy:
x422://t=hazelnut,copper;s=skunkweed;c=ultraviolet,dim,intense;h=1Hz,flappin
g