>But if Valve really needs to go that far, why invent a whole new API for it? Why not just copy win32?
I can think of at least two reasons:
Legal - APIs might be copyrightable in the future.
Control over changes - Not having to play ketchup every time Microsoft changes or updates an API. Windows APIs do still change and break applications they have compensated for this with application specific shims.
That being said I can't imagine what Valve would come up with. Maybe they could base something around Vulkan, Musl and Wayland.
I can think of at least two reasons:
Legal - APIs might be copyrightable in the future.
Control over changes - Not having to play ketchup every time Microsoft changes or updates an API. Windows APIs do still change and break applications they have compensated for this with application specific shims.
That being said I can't imagine what Valve would come up with. Maybe they could base something around Vulkan, Musl and Wayland.