More on Windows printing...

[Richard Gaskin]

Lynch, Jonathan wrote:
 > But - somehow MS word manages to look the same between both.
 > Not to sound paranoid or anything, but I tend to imagine it
 > was designed that way on purpose to make it tougher for
 > competing programs.

It seems you're not paranoid at all.

The decades' old rumors of Micro$oft using undocumented APIs in their 
own apps were confirmed in some of the anti-trust lawsuits won against 
them by more than two dozen governments worldwide in recent years.

References:
<http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/ms_tuncom/public/20/mtc-00019410.htm>
<http://www.internetweek.com/breakingNews/INW20021101S0005>
<http://www.informationweek.com/langaletter/040799langa.htm>
<http://www.techweb.com/article/printableArticle.jhtml?articleID=26800416&site_section=>
More:
<http://www.google.com/search?q=microsoft+undocumented+APIs+lawsuit>

Maybe the most entertaining read on the subject is Penfield Jackson's 
Finding of Facts on the case:
<http://usvms.gpo.gov/ms-findings2.html>
Excerpt:

   "Microsoft has demonstrated that it will use its prodigious
    market power and immense profits to harm any firm that
    insists on pursuing initiatives that could intensify
    competition against one of Microsoft's core products. The
    ultimate result is that some innovations that would truly
    benefit consumers never occur for the sole reason that
    they do not coincide with Microsoft's self-interest."


--
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Media Corporation
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  Rev tools and more: http://www.fourthworld.com/rev