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Volume Number: 11
Issue Number: 7
Column Tag: Viewpoint
By Scott T Boyd, Editor-at-Large
The story begins in a far-away place, a place of legend and lore
An ever-present pale mist hangs low in the sky, shrouding memories of sun-drenched
days long since gone. So distant are those memories that most inhabitants of this place
have relegated them to the stuff of mythology. Some even deny that the sun ever shone
on this forsaken place.
Deep inside a forest works a craftsman, working alongside many others, doing the
bidding of others. This one craftsman, toiling away quietly, had heard tales of days
when the sun shone brightly in the sky, piercing through the gloom. In fact, as these
legends went, although the world was overcast in most places, there was a special place
where bright blue skies and sunshine were almost taken for granted.
Inspired by these tales, he took note of stories from the more recent history
where others had conjured up ways to drive the clouds from the sky. While none of
these tales offered hope as glorious as the distant past, he learned from those who had
gone before. He pondered these as he whiled away the hours working at his assigned
tasks.
Drawing upon what he had learned from the lore of the past, and acting where
others had only retold stories, he set a new task for himself. This task was different.
On the surface, it bore some resemblance to other tasks he had undertaken. Yet, this
one defied explanation. Although his skills in his craft often yielded products which
would draw a fair price in the marketplace, this craftwork offered no hope of earning
anything for his masters. Was he surprised to learn that this did not draw him
praise? While some speculate on this, it certainly didn’t deter him from the mission.
Now, it should be understood that he knew that his labor would not bring him
glory. Yet, the overcast skies, long accepted by the citizens of this domain as normal,
gave him cause to keep at the task. And, lo, after many late nights and sidewise glances
from those who didn’t understand his mission, he brought forth the results of his
work. Quietly and without fanfare, he reproduced the item, and sent it to the farthest
corners of the land.
Even though the item was free, and even though it hailed from the forest where
many wonderful things seemed to come from, few noticed the gift. Nevertheless, one by
one, kindred spirits took note of the gift, and brought it into their places of work.
Holding it in their hands, they would turn it over and over, and wonder whether this
was a tool they might use in their crafts. Some decided not. Some decided so. These put
the tool to use, and something strange happened.
It took a few minutes as each person sorted out what was different. As they did, a
smile appeared on each face. Still overcast, the sky was taking on a new look. It
happened so infrequently that some had trouble remembering what it looked like when
a ray of sunshine peeked through the clouds. Not only did the gift make their work
easier, it lifted their spirits.
Back in the forest, the craftsman returned to his assigned tasks. On occasion,
word would get back to him from someone who had used his gift. Some would send
words of encouragement. Others would send words of criticism, sometimes
constructive, sometimes not. Those who directed his work breathed a sigh of relief,
for now he could get back to his real work with his full attention.
The moral of the story? Here are several:
• Gifts make people feel better.
• For-profit businesses don’t like to build things to give away.
• It’s not easy to remember the glory days, and it’s tempting to think that it’s
always been this way. The glory days were probably just legend, anyway.
• Those who build gifts do so at some personal risk.
Gift-builders deserve our praise. Why? Because many things which get labeled
as gifts are, in actuality, things which people need. Unfortunately, they also tend to be
the kinds of things that no one wants to make because they don’t clearly contribute to
the bottom line. We can’t count on bottom-line watchers to praise their workers, so
we’ll do it here.
This particular craftsman has a name - Bill Knott. He’s an engineer at Apple,
and he built a piece of software you may not yet know about - the Debugging Modern
Memory Manager for Power Macintosh.
Other worthy tool and gift builders have created tools which retrofit existing
memory managers to offer some of the functionality that Bill has simply built in.
Many had talked about how good a debugging memory manager would be, and Bill’s the
guy who built it. While Bill is not alone as a hero to the developer community, his
recent gift deserves something special. I’m tempted to bestow an Unsung Hero award
on Bill, but he’s no longer unsung. Instead, I’ll award him the medal for Bravery in
Relentlessly Pursuing the Right Thing, as well as the medal for getting it into
developer’s hands The Right Way. Thank you Bill, and please keep up the fine work!
Check out his work on the latest Developer CD or at
http://www.info.apple.com/mirror/Apple.Support.Area/Developer_
Services//Tool_Chest/Testing_&_Debugging/Memory_Management/
Debugging_Modern_Memory_Ma.sit.hqx
Once you’ve had a chance to check it out, drop him a note of thanks, and let Apple
management know that we’d like to see more gifts like this. It’s good for Apple to have
happy. developers. mailto: DMMM@powertalk.apple.com
While you’re at it, we’d love it if you CC: us on what you send to Bill. mailto:
editorial@xplain.com