Oct 94 Editor's Page
Volume Number: 10
Issue Number: 10
Column Tag: The Editor’s Page
What We Did on Our Summer Vacation
in Boston
By Scott T Boyd, Editor
What We Did
On Our Summer Vacation in Boston
Well, so it wasn’t really a vacation. I wouldn’t wish setting up a booth in the
World Trade Center without any air conditioning on anyone, e specially as a vacation
activity. [You have to understand, exhibitors aren’t really considered “people” and
therefore don’t need air conditioning. - Ed. nst]
Actually, there was a good bit of fun. Strangely, though, the biggest parties
aren’t always the best bet. This year at least one of the biggest almost completely
succeeded in what must have been a deliberate attempt to screen out the t-shirt crowd.
All that effort to have a museum full of suits? Go figure. Two much smaller parties
made their mark. Mac the Knife hosted a nice little get-together. The attendee list
spoke volumes about the quality of the Knife’s sources. The best party, though, had to
be one where the party guests supported the party by buying t-shirts. Yes, it was the
“System 7.5 Sucks Less” party, and the quality of the production bears witness to the
kind of results you can get with a small team of hard-working, dedicated team
members. Some good (non-engineering) folks at Apple had a hard time believing that
“sucks less” was a good thing, but us programmer types enjoyed the good-natured
ribbing. Strange, but there were a lot more t-shirts than suits at this party!
The show itself held a few surprises, and a lot of non-surprises. If there was a
theme, it might have been “More of the same, only native!”
The best part of the show for us was the opportunity to spend time with a whole
bunch of the people who build the developer tools we use. MacTech Magazine had two
booths, one on the floor of the World Trade Center, and a tiny one in the Apple tent. The
tent spot was right in the midst of a number of developers, right between Symantec and
Metrowerks. During lulls, developer tool authors mingled, swapped stories, and gave
each other a hard time. I got to watch as a worker on one side of us talked a guy from
the other side out of a t-shirt, saying, “I promise I’ll wear it to work.” That’s
something we’d like to see.
Random Show Observations
Much of what we saw in the way of developer tools has already shown up in print
here, or will soon. On the other hand, some of what we saw on the show floor gave us
some things to think about. For example, RAMDoubler’s success evoked exclamations
like, “Isure would like to have a big hit and get rich!” from even the most modest of
developers. Berkeley Systems had people standing five deep to get free inflatable
goodies and watch fun screen “savers”. And, although WordPerfect was giving away
umbrellas, we saw people standing in line not knowing about the freebies. They wanted
to watch WordPerfect’s demo because, “There’s no way I’m going to put OLEon my
Macintosh just to run the big, new version of Word. I want to see what I’m going to be
using next” (we don’t make this stuff up).
Dayna was showing a cool demo of their wireless networking. Apple was
showcasing just how many applications have gone native (although they didn’t bother
to point out just how many of them were done with CodeWarrior). Computer
Chronicles, the PBSTVshow, was taping segments all over the show floor. The World
Trade Center food was pretty good, and not expensive, either. We expected airport
quality and prices.
The one game that programmers kept talking about was Sensory Overload, from
Reality Bytes. Everyone says it’s just like Doom. I (shamelessly) talked them out of a
copy so we could do our duty and give you a quick review. In a nutshell, one
programmer didn’t understand the attraction. Another programmer disappeared for
several hours, then cursed me for letting him try it (probably because he couldn’t find
anywhere to buy it yet).
Even though it was available before the show, going on the road gave Neil a chance
to give his new 19.2 PowerPort modem a real workout. He’d been struggling with
Apple’s modem “solution” for his Duo, and is pleased to report that he’s found the
alternative. Neil does more e-mail or faxes per minute than anyone Iknow, and he
grooved on Global Village’s performance and fax software. He says, “Faxing is now so
much faster and easier, it isn’t worth comparing to Apple’s software. Check it out!”
Speaking of computers and phones, Collaboration Technologies was showing their
still-in-development PhoneBridge® to everyone with telephony products, and kicking
up quite a stir. PhoneBridge is a hardware/software combo which connects to your
Mac via ADB, Sound In, and Sound Out. It can mix and match audio and knows all about
phones. You can use it and your Mac as a most interesting phone. The best part? It’s a
developer platform. I told a few friends about it, and each one immediately went and
demanded that Collaboration take their money and give them a developer kit. It was
great to see developers truly excited about a new technology! My favorite developer
opportunity for it? To use it to mix in the background sound of your choice to create
custom atmosphere for your calls (e.g. “Wow, this connection is really bad. I’ll have
to call you back”). One developer is already working on a real-time Pretty Good
Privacy (PGP) secure phone application for it. For more info, e-mail
phonebridge@ apple.com.
Hawking His Wares
Stephen Hawking, renowned physicist, gave a thoughtful keynote, taking us
through the thought process of wondering whether there is life elsewhere in the
universe. Along the way, he identified computer viruses as a life form (controversial,
but not convincing), and used it to get a good laugh. His humor may very well have
been the highlight of his talk. At a show like MacWorld, it wasn’t surprising to
discover that a big reason for his keynote was his new CD-ROM multimedia version of
A Brief History of Time, his 1988 best-seller.
Back in the Real World
Last week Idropped in on a Software Entrepreneurs Forum in Palo Alto for an
OpenDoc vs. OLEdebate. Both sides brought their heavy hitters, and they played to a
packed audience. Every time Igo to one of these debates, both side refine their
approaches, using lessons learned in previous debates.
I keep finding myself looking at the issues being discussed. Is SOM the right
object model? Do developers really need non-rectangular objects? Will the shipping
technology “win” because it’s available and the other is not? Is a framework
necessary, or programming components at the “bare-metal” APIlevel easy enough?
In this issue, we have a letter where the writer insists that MacTech Magazine
rally behind Apple, lending our support because we owe our support to Apple, and so
Microsoft doesn’t win. A debate along these lines is happening in
comp.sys.mac.programmer.
I expect that most of you find at least some of these questions interesting, perhaps
even worthy of debate. I have to wonder, though, are these really the issues you care
about?
For example, how will you, the developer, decide whether you will support
OpenDoc? Will it take convincing you that OpenDoc is the superior technology? Maybe
knowing that it’s available cross-platform will be your deciding factor? Maybe SOM
is what you’ve been waiting for? It could be that you’ll go with it because it’s an Apple
technology, and you’ll follow Apple’s lead. Or maybe you’ll go with it because it’s not a
Microsoft technology.
And how will you decide whether you’ll support OLE? Microsoft Office is wildly
successful. Perhaps you want to play into that market. Of course, it’s shipping, and
maybe you have to get to market now, and you simply can’t afford to wait. Maybe OLEis
enough for your needs, or you’ve already got a Windows product, and it only makes
sense to use the Microsoft technology that you believe will become dominant.
Here’s an issue we haven’t heard much about. What’s the debugging experience
going to be like when you’re intermingling components from a number of different
vendors? Is one technology more conducive to easy debugging than the other?
These and other issues will play into the decisions that countless developers will
be making. The shape that the debate has been taking focuses on these issues.
Yet, there’s something we haven’t heard enough about, and that’s the business
model. The debate we’ve seen so far has centered on interesting issues, but it’s time
that the debate starts hitting on the issues that make the real difference for developers.
The biggest of these: how are you going to make money? A number of questions
come to mind, and none of these has received the kind of treatment necessary for
business planning at the small, third-party developer level. Will there be room for
more than one kind of each component in the marketplace? How does a little developer
get into the channels? Will makers of suites have their collection of components that
are good enough, leaving little room for better components too gain entry? Will
end-users really shop for individual components? Will Apple and Microsoft do
something to help the small developer survive the transition?
Here’s another big question. Is it really an either/or choice? It’s easy to come
away from these debates with the notion that you have to choose up sides. It’s also easy
to come away thinking that you’ve got to make up your mind soon.
We’re not even sure why Apple keeps attending the debates. Maybe it’s just a
way to get in front of developer audiences. Maybe it’s to give developers a reason to
stall and not make a big committment to OLE just yet. Apple has a strong offering. It
interoperates with OLE. We see little reason to position it as a competitor.
We’re going to take the time to examine both technologies and the business issues
surrounding them. We expect the vested interests to take issue with some of what gets
printed here. That’s why we invite all comers to make their case. And feel free to
rebutt. But let’s get the debate focused on the needs of the developer. By the way, if
there’s an issue you’d like to see addressed, let us know, and we’ll raise it with the
players.
Prograph Conference
Prograph International is hosting the 2nd Annual Prograph Developers’
Conference October 14-16 at Apple’s R&D campus in Cupertino, CA. The conference
will focus on new developments in client/server database tools and cross-platform
technologies for PowerMac and Windows. (415) 773-8234 for more info on how you
can spend three days soaking up Apple atmosphere while immersing yourself in
Prograph.
Food For Thought
Ever wonder how Apple comes up with its licensing strategy and pricing? We had
to scratch our heads over this one. To license QuickTime Package 2.0 for Macintosh
costs $300/year, yet QuickTime for Windows 1.1 is only $250. What’s the message
here?
Not Food For Thought
You know that glue we used to bind the CD into the August issue? We visited our
printer and asked them what it was called. The technical term? Booger glue.