By Ina Fried, 14 May 2004 09:10
NEWS Microsoft this week released into the open-source community a series of pre-existing templates designed to simplify the writing of Windows programs - making it possible for developers to freely modify the templates.
On Tuesday night, the company posted to SourceForge its Windows Template Library, a series of code snippets designed to make it easier for developers to create graphic interfaces for Windows programs. The templates have been freely available for five years from Microsoft's developer site.
The release marks the second time Microsoft has released code on SourceForge under an open-source licence - in both cases using the Common Public Licence. In April, Microsoft revealed the code for its Windows Installer XML (WiX) software, a set of tools used to build installation packages for the company's Windows products from Extensible Markup Language source code.
As for the templates, developers will now be able to build on and modify them.
Jason Matusow, shared source initiative manager at Microsoft, said: "This is hardly something that is brand-new. There was some concern that we weren't putting forward enough."
By allowing others to modify the code, Matusow said, Microsoft benefits by increasing Windows development, while programmers benefit from improved tools.
Ina Fried writes for News.com
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