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Has anyone here had to document a COM interface that in *reality* is only
supported for Visual Basic (only VS6) and ASP (VBScript flavor)?
Theoretically, MANY different languages (and development environments) can
use a COM interface. With COM support for network communication, the
computer providing COM services and its client don't even have to be the
same OS.
My client's product provides a C++ interfaces, a Java interface, and a COM
interface. However, for COM, the company only supports and tests and claims
compatibility for COM interface for Visual Basic and ASP (VBScript flavor).
1) From what I can tell, treating the API like true implementation-neutral
COM interface makes the specifications and declarations look kinda like a
C++ interface that displeases and/or confuses Visual Basic developers. They
have old some API reference docs that demonstrate this effect. This would be
a minor issue if VB devs are a small percentage of total devs.
2) Documenting it primarily like a Visual Basic & ASP interface might not be
the right thing to do in the medium term if the company starts *supporting*
other platforms and other development environments with the COM interface,
and suddenly all the terminology, diagrams, and assumptions within the text
will need to be revisited.
On the surface, it seems like there must be a happy medium somewhere in the
middle, with some general COM information with Visual Basic and ASP examples
"where appropriate".
But...
A) What is the happy medium in this case? How to do this?
B) If people are only *permitted* to use VB and ASP, should I even treat it
like a general COM interface *at all* right now, or just treat it like a
Visual Basic & ASP interface with only very brief footnotes about what COM
is and what differences may exist for other languages?
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