Re: Any WWDC News
Re: Any WWDC News
- Subject: Re: Any WWDC News
- From: Trae Nickelson <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 1 Jul 2004 15:30:52 -0500
Mike,
While I respect your opinion, and actually realize that you and I have
a lot in common professionally, we have different perspectives on how
we all got into this mess. I have to defend my point that Apple HAS in
fact fumbled the ball here. And whether or not you agree with my
terminology - that we are in a mess together - you, I, and everyone
else reading this has been adversely affected by Apple's fool-hearted
decision making. Some more than others.
Trae, I'm sorry to say this but I think this is a bunch of bologna.
It's not Apple's job (or any other company or person for that matter)
to provide you or anyone else with job security, happiness or wealth.
You've been talking like Apple owes you and every other WO developer
something. They don't. Now that's not to say that I'm not pissed
off that they haven't updated WOBuilder or fixed the silly interface
bugs in EOModeler. Those are things I expect them to do and I'm ticked
off to no end that they haven't. But I don't "expect" that by
learning their framework I'm going to find fortune and fame. No
technology does that for anyone.
I would never suggest that Apple's job is to provide me with job
security. I think you could sum up my expectations of Apple in two
items - competency and sanity. Does it "owe" me, you, or anybody else
anything? Explicitly, no. Implicitly, without a doubt. It owes us
all a predictable level of sanity and competency in how it deals with
us, and the market in which we all strive to make a living. I can take
of the rest myself, as can all of us.
Apple puts software and hardware out there. Some people choose to
use them for various strategic/personal reasons. SOme don't. It's
not like all WO developers are losing their jobs tomorrow because there
wasn't an announcement at WWDC. I don't think there's been much
movement in the C development world and there's tons of high paying
work out there for good C programmers. WebObjects is a framework to
build a specific kind of application and it does that well. I
personally have never rested on my laurels thinking that for my whole
career I only need to be proficient at WO or C or Python or any of the
other tools I use in my day to day work. I can go out and quit my job
tomorrow and get a high paying J2EE or plain old Java application
programming job. I was never sent to J2EE training but I spent
countless hours learning and developing in that framework to both
compare/contrast it to other enterprise technologies as well as to have
a clear understanding of how to work within that world if my WebObjects
choices don't work out or I decide J2EE provides my company something
that WO doesn't provide or if it just leaps past it in terms of
functionality, productivity, etc. Right now it's not even close.
You mention "my company" - I assume you own the company. I too would
not choose any other tool but WebObjects for any of my company's
internal projects. But WebObjects could have been so much more. It
could have had a real future outside of internal projects and the rare
small external project where we can sneak it in.
I too supplement my skills list on my resume with J2EE, JSV, .NET,
Java, etc. I have to to survive, same as you do. In fact, I usually
relegate "WebObjects" and "EOF" (my absolute favorite items on my
resume) somewhere way down the list so as not to stick out too much so
that I have to explain them and they distract from my marketable
skills. You are absolutely right about not resting on your laurels,
but consider this... The J2EE (WebLogic, Web Sphere) engineers, or the
.NET engineer would never consider "supplementing" their resume with
"WebObjects". They likely have never even heard of it! It would have
the same effect if the listed "Latin" on their skills list. That ain't
right.
There is one, and only one, entity to blame for the reason that listing
"WebObjects" on your resume does not carry the respect and prestige and
pay rate it should. Apple. I recognize that this may all just sound
like the whining complaint of the falsely "entitled", but I only
intend it as an observation of cause and effect. Only Apple had the
opportunity to put WO out there in the spotlight it deserved, and they
squandered the opportunity.
I wonder what a developer with your skill level could have done in a
world where WebObjects had lived up to its potential in the market.
The things we all would have accomplished. I wonder how better off
Apple would be in the Enterprise space. You should too. And you
should hold the right entity accountable.
Again, I feel your frustration but I think you're blaming Apple for the
wrong things. You said several times that you're not upset that they
haven't updated the tools but that they haven't marketed WO. They
NEVER marketed WO. You've been doing this for 6 years... what made you
think Monday would have been different?
Because it is just such an obvious opportunity to everyone around it.
To everyone but Apple. Again, assumption of sanity and competence,
mixed in with unearned patience.
BTW, it may behoove anyone curious about this to look through the Omni
group mailing lists regarding this topic. It seems that every year at
least there is a long thread about the death of WO and people jumping
ship. This goes back to version 4.0 so it's not new idea.
Mike's exactly right. It's the old "WebObjects isn't going anywhere"
argument. To the newly initiated, do go search through the archives at
the Omni group mailing lists and see just how long some of us have been
beating our head against the same wall. See how little has changed.
See how insane we have all been for the last several years. See a few
of the names go missing in some of the later posts as they realized
something the rest of us had not. Consider as you read the numerous
posts of frustration and pleading, that someone at Apple has surely
read them too. Consider how they have smugly, blatantly ignored their
customer base. See for yourself that WebObjects is truly "not going
anywhere." And then decide whether YOU are "not going anywhere" with
them.
Thanks Mike. No disrespect intended. We all have different boiling
points.
Trae
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