[ODE] documentation initiative

[Jon Watte]

> The C ABI is identical across all popular Win32 compilers -- 
> otherwise, you wouldn't be able to use DirectX or even the 
> Win32 SDK with the non-MS compilers.

Which is why, every so often, a new version of the DirectX API 
will come out, and using some newer tool to build the libraries, 
which then aren't compatible with the older tools, or non-
Microsoft tools. This has happened more than once.

The _ABI_ is compatible, but the _library format_ is not. It 
usually takes a while for new conversion tools to show up for 
non-Microsoft environments when Microsoft changes their format. 
And Microsoft doesn't release back-conversion tools for those 
who are still using an older, possibly more stable version of 
the tools.

It's not impossible to support all compilers on Microsoft 
platforms well, but sometimes it seems like they're trying to 
make it as hard as possible. With the end result that adoption 
of the "newer, better" tools is actually slowed down!

Cheers,

			/ h+