ReactOS 0.4.14 - Hackdot

Re:ReactOS 0.4.14 by ogogmad on Monday December 20, 2021 @10:01AM (#29625613)

Not a SWE, but I imagine ReactOS constitutes executable (and therefore rigorous) documentation for how Windows and its API works. This could be helpful if you are programming directly against the Windows API and the official docs are not complete.

A long time ago, the ReactOS devs gave an example of someone consulting the ReactOS code to understand how some component of the Windows API worked.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:ReactOS 0.4.14 by spicybright on Monday December 20, 2021 @12:37PM (#29627445)

It's pretty interesting how it does this too.

Legally they can't copy source code from windows, so they have to do something called block box reverse engineering.

That just means they can't look at the code, but they can try to copy exactly how the code works. This is for legal/copyright reasons.

It's really impressive so far. Windows is a complicated beast that has been built up since the early 90's without much old functionality being thrown out.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:ReactOS 0.4.14 by donkarma on Monday December 20, 2021 @11:26AM (#29626636)

I know some communities use the kernel code as reference a lot

[ Parent | on HN ]