[mschaef]

> he, and many other core Windows engineers lined their pockets for years - write complex implementations, do the absolute bare minimum documentation, then take a 6 month sabbatical and publish a reference book that was absolutely required to actually use the API.

If you don't spend enough time on design, it's easy to wind up with an overcomplicated API that lacks documentation.

I wonder if the book was just a "convenient side benefit" of Microsoft's general failure to invest in developer UX. (At least at the time.)

[ufmace]

I wouldn't be surprised if the actual progression went like:

Senior engineers end up with a moderately complex API for various bureaucratic reasons and don't have time to document it well -> Some junior engineer trying to be helpful writes up instructions as he figures out how to use it -> Junior engineer, still trying to be helpful, can't find anywhere good to put these instructions he wrote, so he gets a book published of it -> Rakes in extra money from said book -> Senior engineers see this and think, whoa, that's a nice scheme, but why should this newbie get all the $$$, let's do it more on purpose! -> Next thing you know, all the APIs are actually more complex and everyone's got a book

[8chanAnon]

>If you don't spend enough time on design, it's easy to wind up with an overcomplicated API that lacks documentation.

That sounds about right. Creeping featurism gets ahead of the team's ability to document it all before the product has to be delivered. Hence the need to take some time off and write a book about it. It's not necessarily an evil plan but just the way it works sometimes. Writing documentation is hard. Delivering the documentation on time is even harder.