WWDC: Day 2: Back to reality
WWDC: Day 2: Back to reality
In the event I was not clear enough previously, this is a conference about Mac OS X. As far as the organizers are concerned, Classic is accorded the same respect as a crazy uncle the family sends upstairs whenever company comes over. When the word Classic is mentioned, the speaker usually adds a mild tone of derision. The message, both overt and implied, is that Classic is yesterday's news, and anyone looking back will be run over.
Mac OS X everywhere is fine as a strategy, but engineering is that most wonderful of disciplines where, when fantasy and reality tangle, reality always wins. The reality is that Mac OS 9.1 has evolved over 17 years to become a polished, feature rich environment. It has a full set of developer tools, a large body of experienced developers, and an entire culture of user expectations. Mac OS X has that as well - it's called Classic.
I am not being critical of Apple's overall strategy. Mac OS X is the future, and it needs to be evangelized aggressively. Although I question the wisdom of bludgeoning developers with threats about user loyalty in an effort to get applications converted in six months to run on an OS that took over 10 years to develop.
Imagine the quandary that poses for a moment. Most major applications, including developer tools such as CodeWarrior, have been revised between five and ten times since their first release. That is a lot of evolution in and of itself. The time it has taken to get OS X in the shape its in today is a perfect example of how the best intentions take longer than expected, and often with substantial yet less than perfect results. No developer wants to create a Mac OS X version that has less features than the previous release, but that may very well happen given the relative youth of both Mac OS X and its developer tools. Just as the Finder in X needs optimizing and new features to equal the previous version, the tools needed to create OS X applications are also works in progress.
Oh, but what impressive progress thus far. Applications such as Mail, OmniWeb, GraphicConverter, REALbasic, and others prove that Mac OS X is a real operating system. It is only a matter of time and effort before the Mac OS X transition is history, and we look back at 2001 much the same way we now look back on the 68K to PowerPC transition.
Aside from the road to Mac OS X, several other items caught my attention today. One of the first things to notice at WWDC is the proliferation of laptops. With a casual glance around the building one might be tempted to assume that bringing a laptop is required. Although not a requirement, it is a heck of a lot of fun. The entire building has a decent AirPort signal, making it possible to surf the Web while listening to a presentation. Most striking to me - in my casual non-scientific survey that consisted of random peeks at other people’s screens – is that it seems nearly all of them were running Mac OS X. When I ask, most say they spend most of their day in X.
Out of the hundreds of laptops here, maybe a handful of users have one of the new iBooks. One generous person let me take a close look at his, and it is small, light, and beautiful. They turn heads everywhere and inspire comments such as "I want one."
The WW in WWDC stands for World Wide, and those are not empty words. There are attendees here from all over the globe. I rode the bus in this morning with two students from Australia who spent 24 hours on an airplane to get here: which promptly made me feel guilty for moaning about my measly 3 1/2 hour drive. Talking with them was a delight. One told me he had dreamed of coming to WWDC since he was a little kid, and now he was here, thanks to a scholarship from Apple. The excitement in both their voices was contagious. I’ve met quite a few students here this year, and it's clear that the Mac has a whole new group of committed developers waiting in the wings. Investing in young developers will have enormous benefits. Although time has fogged some of the details in my memory, I believe Raymond Lau was still in high school when he created the original StuffIt application.
WWDC is, at its most basic level, a gathering of over a thousand individuals who are committed to making great tools to help users accomplish their goals. When all the chatter is swept aside, I am left with the overwhelming impression that Macintosh development is in its best shape ever. The next fifteen years should be an E-ticket ride.
Reported by Robert DeLaurentis
See also yesterday's coverage of WWDC events.