Groklaw: Interview with FSFE's President Georg Greve Microsoft -- according to its own claims they have made in court these days -- had to spend a lot of manpower on the project of documenting its software, including hiring retired engineers who had left the companies so they would tell Microsoft what was happening in their software. Now, the total of that effort -- allegedly, I mean, I can't check this -- was 35,000 person-hours, to document what they should already know. Doesn't Microsoft know what is happening inside the machines that are on 90 to 95% of the desktops on this planet? That is worrisome, because documentation of specifications and interfaces is part of good design and good interfaces are a necessary part to have stable and secure systems.
Also reported in The Register: Microsoft talks up interoperability Microsoft recruited retired engineers because much of the code was old. Creating the documentation took 35,000 hours, it is 12,650 pages long, and getting longer as the code is upgraded.
Of course, dividing 35,000 hours by 12,650 pages doesn't exactly promise high quality for the documentation; but the fact alone that they didn't have it in the first place is pretty damning.
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