MacWorld SF 95
Volume Number: 11
Issue Number: 3
Column Tag: Macworld Expo Notes
Have You Seen Anything Cool? 
Another quest for good stuff at MacWorld
By various contributors
Our staff has assembled a near-random set of observations from various people
who attended MacWorld Expo in San Francisco in January. They’re presented in a
hodge-podge below. That’s fitting, given the helter skelter hit-and-miss nature of the
four day event.
What was hot? Well there was that weird guy with a Connectix QuickCam wired
into his baseball cap recording anything that moved in the Penthouse booth. I heard he
got some great shots and great quotes. Did she really say, “Do it again, over here
where the light’s better”?
Apple showed a great demo of an upcoming OpenDoc-based ClarisWorks in the
Developer Showcase. This ClarisWorks, with one tool pallet in the belly of an animated
bear and another as a traditional bar, demonstrates how OpenDoc allows the user
interface to be tailored to different markets.
There were not many Internet savvy apps. Guy Kawasaki’s Emailer, by Fog City
Software, looks good for those who support more than one service, but its lack of
filters keeps it far from competing with Eudora. StarNine’s Macintosh list server
looks very hot. It can process QuickMail and Internet messages with auto replies,
activating other apps and more.
One developer reported that this was the first show where Performa owners
discovered that their Macintoshes were good for more than typing school papers. All
those doctors and lawyers are now seeing what fun they can have with QuickCam and
Marathon on the Internet.
The conference organizers wouldn’t allow booths in Developer Central to put
padding under their carpet. Ooh, those dogs hurt!
Main Event was showing their Apple Script development environment. It
supports variable watching and changing on the fly, step tracing, pausing a script and
running another in the paused script’s variable space, excellent point-and-click
script building and a bunch of other cool tools for developing Apple Scripts. This is a
must have for any Apple Script developer; let’s hope they finally ship it.
Of course, MetroWerks released a new version, but I didn’t take the time to see
it. Their tree reduction effort seemed to be a success if you count the number of people
rushing to buy the printed version of their documentation.
While looking for someone to comment on the Windows sessions for Macintosh
programmers, we drew this comment, “Sorry, I can’t help you here. It repels me like
a magnet. :-)”
The show is smaller because of the large number of mergers and acquisitios that
have taken place in the industry.
Apple’s Pavilion set aside in a separate room continues to be a mistake. It’s
difficult to navigate and it’s a very crowded and stuffy room. It needs to be back on the
main show floor. Rumor has it that it will be this way in Boston.
Connectix continued to have hot products at the show. People were continuously
stacked up four across, eight deep, eager to drop their $99 for a QuickCam. One
Symantec exec was seen buying two, one for a friend who couldn’t get away from his
booth in Developer Central.
You mean there’s a whole ’nuther hall to get through?
Wearing a QuickCam on a hat while walking around the show capturing pictures
and video is a great way to meet everyone at the show.
There were a number of people at the show who were amazed at how many tools
and opportunities there were available on the Macintosh for developers.
The show had at least 30% more attendance than last Macworld (maybe even
more).
People are over the phase of “is the Power Macintosh for real?”
When (if ever) are they going to open the passageway between the Marriott Hotel
(where all the keynotes are) and the Moscone Center?
Developer Central was a resounding success. Everyone had space, the volume
level was talkable, and the crowd passing through seemed to have a lot of developers in
it.
Microsoft seemed quite pleased with the response to their Windows for Macintosh
developers sessions.
There were simply too many interesting people at the show and not enough time to
talk to them all.
People just don’t seem to be giving out enough free samples, especially of
expensive hardware!
Staying up all night the night before the show to work with a small group of
volunteers to get a demo going wore me out, but what a blast!
At long last, it was a simple matter to get a really good cup of coffee within just a
few steps of the convention center.
The Williams Defender emulator looked really good. Maybe too good. Many people
didn’t realize that the stand-up arcade machines had Macs inside, nor did they realize
that Defender was for sale and available to run on their Macs at home. I shudder to
think that it’s available for unlimited play at only $25 after I wasted a year of college
dropping quarters.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but the Apple Evangelism party was a great party.
Ford puts on a good shindig.
Best booth? It had to be Bungie’s booth. It’s not that the booth itself was
anything special. In fact, I can’t say that I ever saw the booth because you couldn’t get
near it even by waving cash at them. People were crowded around five deep trying to
buy Marathon.
Worst booth? It’s so hard to choosebut we’ll give it to Pinnacle. Their steel
box fortress may make for some nice, quiet conversations on the inside, but who found
the door?
Most overly-hyped party? Could it be the Be In? Best happening at the Be In?
Cool General Magic demos. Did you know that those things can send e-mail?
Who was showing at Developer Central? Hang on to your hats!
Absoft - MacFortran, C++
ACI - 4th Dimension and 4D Server, Object Master
Aladdin Systems - StuffIt InstallerMaker
Apple Computer, Inc. - APDA, Apple Dylan, Apple Guide Authoring, Apple Media Tool,
Developer Press, Developer Support Programs, Developer University,
HyperCard/AppleScript, Mac OS SDK, MPW Pro / E.T.O., Multimedia
Development Tools, Newton Toolkit, OpenDoc, QuickTime
BareBones Software- BBEdit 3.1, PopupFuncs 2.5, Cool T-Shirts, Bowers
Development - AppMaker
Claris Corporation - FileMaker Pro, FileMaker Pro Server and Runtime. Claris
Solutions Alliance
Digitool, Inc. - Macintosh Common Lisp
dtF Americas, Inc - dtF Relational Database
EveryWare Development Corp. - Butler SQL Server
Graphical Business Interfaces Inc. - TableIt!, Cataloger™ and Template Constructor™
Hayden Books - Programming Books
Jasik Designs - The Debugger/MacNosy
Kaleida Labs, Inc. - ScriptX
Language Systems - LS Pascal and LS Fortran
MacTech Magazine - MacTech CD, MacTech Mail Order
Main Event Software - Scripter®, Rosanne™ Data Processing Package.
Mathemæsthetics, Inc. - Resorcerer
Metrowerks - CodeWarrior 5
Micro Macro - MicroGuard
Microsoft Corporation - FoxPro, Visual C++ 2.0 Cross-Development Edition
Motorola
PACE Anti-Piracy - PACE Anti-Piracy
Prograph International - Prograph CPX 1.1, Prograph Client/Server Tools,
Prograph Classic
Quasar Knowledge Systems - SmalltalkAgents 2.0
Remote Measurement Systems - EnviroMac
SAS Institute - SAS: JMP
Scientific Placement - Recruitment services for professional Macintosh Software
Developers.
Stone Tablet Publishing - StoneTable
Summit Software Company - BasicScript™ Toolkit for Macintosh
Symantec Corporation - Symantec Developers Advantage, Symantec C++ 8.0 for
Power Macintosh
Tenon Intersystems - Tenon’s Unix/Mach software, MachTen
True BASIC, Inc. - True BASIC
Waterloo Maple Software - Maple V, Theorist, Expressionist, MicroExpressionist,
MathEdge.
and hiding off on the edge, as if they were really a part of Developer Central, was
Dell, surrounded by sand bags and signs saying, “Don’t shoot! We’re not the enemy.”
Right.
Referenced by (2):