Win32 binding replacement

[Sean Kelly]

On Oct 15, 2011, at 10:29 PM, Don wrote:
> 
> std.windows is a complete joke. I don't think it's usable. There are some really simple functions it doesn't include. Last time I used it, I even found cases where it has a GetXXX function but not the corresponding SetXXX function. As far as I can tell, it is the set of functions required to compile "Empire", and then a few more functions added.
> 
> It's possible to make a case for including only a small subset of the Windows API in the download (ie, that part of the headers which is used by Phobos itself). But in that case, I think it should be marketed differently, and not called "windows".
> 
> I would say, though, that it's pretty hard to make that case if we include headers for SQLlite, as seems to be happening.
> 
> The bindings Win32 project was originally set up to replace std.windows. It was based on the MingW headers to avoid license issues. Now, I don't know what recent contributors have done; it could be that some people have grabbed stuff from the Windows headers (I suspect that may be true of the DirectX stuff).
> If it's true that headers aren't copyrightable, then I don't know why the MingW headers exist. Is that really true?

Seems my memory was a bit off.  From http://www.boost.org/users/license.html:

"Does the copyright and license cover interfaces too? The conceptual interface to a library isn't covered. The particular representation expressed in the header is covered, as is the documentation, examples, test programs, and all the other material that goes with the library. A different implementation is free to use the same logical interface, however. Interface issues have been fought out in court several times; ask a lawyer for details."

> Here's where the MingW guys ask the same question, and I think the answer is "nobody is certain".
> http://old.nabble.com/Google%27s-Android-Bionic-header-files,-and-relevance-to-w32api-headers-td31271566.html
> 
> But, more interesting is Digital Mars's agreement with Microsoft WRT header file distribution. It may be possible to make it a DMD download rather than Phobos per se.

Good point.  Well in that case, I'd be fine with dropping in the other headers.