Why are some GDI functions named ExtXxx instead of XxxEx?

Raymond Chen

By convention, an enhanced version of a function Xxx is called XxxEx, but there are many GDI functions that don’t follow this conventions, most notably ExtTextOut, which should have been named TextOutEx under the XxxEx convention. Why don’t the GDI functions follow that convention? Because they were named before the XxxEx convention was established.

Nothing nefarious, just an artifact of history.

Raymond Chen

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