Application Programming Interface for Windows: Difference between revisions

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{{short description|Proposed software compatibility standard}}

{{tooshort|date=May 2024}}

The '''Application Programming Interface for Windows''' ('''APIW''') Standard is a specification of the Microsoft [[Windows 3.1]] API drafted by [[Willows Software]]. It is the successor to previously proposed Public Windows Interface standard. It was created in an attempt to establish a vendor-neutral, platform-independent, open standard of the 16-bit Windows API not controlled by Microsoft.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-234.htm | title = Standard ECMA-234 |date=December 1995 | publisher = [[Ecma International]] | format = PDF }}</ref>

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<!-- should be expanded in a separate article on Willows Software at a later stage -->

In February 1994, the PWI Specification Committee sent a draft specification to [[X/Open]]—who rejected it in March, after being threatened by Microsoft's assertion of intellectual property rights (IPR) over the Windows APIs<ref>{{cite web | title = X/OPEN NOT TO TAKE MANAGEMENT OF THE PUBLIC WINDOWS INITIATIVE | date = March 30, 1994 | publisher = Computer Business Review }}</ref>—and the [[Ecma International|European Computer Manufacturers' Association]] (ECMA). In September, now part of an ECMA delegation, they made an informational presentation about the project at the ISO SC22 plenary meeting in The Hague, Netherlands.<ref name="Farnum">{{cite journal | author = Rob Farnum | date=June 1996 | title = Applications Programmingprogramming Interfaceinterface for Windows: A Timelytimely Standardstandard | journal=StandardView | date=June StandardView1996 | volume = 4 | number = 2 | pages = 100–102 | doi=10.1145/234999.235003 | s2cid=776348 | doi-access= free }}</ref> Their goal was to make it an [[International Organization for Standardization|ISO]] standard in order to force Microsoft to comply with it (in Windows) or risk not being able sell to European or Asian governments who can only buy ISO standards-compliant products.<ref>{{cite journal | author = Martin LanMonica | date = December 18, 1995 | title = Group back Windows spec | journal = [[InfoWorld]] | page = 16 | publisher = InfoWorld Media Group, Inc. }}</ref>

In April 1995, [[Willows Software, Inc.]] (formerly [[Multiport, Inc.]]<ref>{{cite web | title = CORSAIR EFFORT TO BECOME INTERNET OPERATING SYSTEM | date = March 17, 1995 | publisher = Computer Business Review }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.computerwoche.de/heftarchiv/1995/26/1115269/ | title=Corsair Desktop mit Linux-Kern | trans-title=Corsair Desktop Linux kernel | date=June 30, 1995 | publisher=[[Computerwoche]] | url-status=dead | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120323153822/http://www.computerwoche.de/heftarchiv/1995/26/1115269/ | archivedate=March 23, 2012 }}</ref>) a Saratoga, California-based [[Canopy Group|Canopy]]-funded company, that had been working on Windows to Unix technologies (inherited from then defunct [[Hunter Systems, Inc.]]<ref>{{cite web | title = HUNTER'S PERSONAL COMPUTER APPLICATIONS UNDER UNIX TECHNOLOGY RE-EMERGES AT MULTIPORT | date = July 8, 1993 | publisher = Computer Business Review }}</ref>) since early 1993, joined the ''ad hoc'' ECMA group. This group became Technical Committee 37 in August (about the time [[Windows 95]] was released). Willows vowed to complete a full draft specification by the end of the year. In October, the draft specification was completed under the name Application Programming Interface for Windows (APIW). This was accepted as ECMA-234 in December and was put on the fast-track program to become an ISO standard.<ref name="Farnum"/>

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== ISO delay ==

Again, Microsoft claimed intellectual property over Windows APIs and ISO put the standard on hold pending proof of their claims. The delay lasted until November 1997, when, hearing no response from Microsoft, ISO announced they were pushing through with the standard.<ref name="Cargill">{{cite journal | author = Carl Cargill | date=December 1997 | title = Section 2. Sun and Standardizationstandardization Warswars | journal=StandardView | date=December StandardView1997 | volume = 5 | number = 4 | pages = 133–135 | doi=10.1145/274348.274350 | s2cid=35428635 }}</ref> However, there is no record of it ever being approved as an ISO standard.

== See also ==