Microsoft on Tuesday said it is offering free information on how to let developers understand how to make rival server products read and write information in extensible application markup language.
The technical documentation will be particularly useful for those working on what Microsoft described as advanced user experiences, or software with a lot of 3D graphics and video. ISVs will also be able to use the XAML guidelines to create design tools and file format converters, Microsoft added.
The 500 pages of documentation follow a decision by Microsoft last month to give developers and customers free access to key application programming interfaces and documentation related to Windows software in a bid to increase interoperability, appease the open source community and European antitrust authorities.
Normally developers have to pay a trade secret licence to access information on Windows client or server protocols. Microsoft has already offered ISVs more than 30,000 pages of Windows information on MSDN.
Microsoft has promised it would not sue open source developers for using the documentation, APIs and protocols and would provide licences if needed at low royalty rates.