Re: Any WWDC News (Business Logic)
Re: Any WWDC News (Business Logic)
- Subject: Re: Any WWDC News (Business Logic)
- From: Trae Nickelson <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 1 Jul 2004 14:24:56 -0500
Hi Ray,
Good stuff. Thanks for the thoughts. I think you are more patient than
I am.
Interesting point. Reminds me of so many of the strategy games we must
have all played. Warcraft / Starcraft, SimCity, Railroad Tycoon etc.
In each game the point is to make the right choices to utilise your
resources to the best effect. Spend too much on development and you get
overthrown. Get too aggressive and find yourself weak later in the
story.
Legitimate analogy. Following up with it, would not agree that
WebObjects has already been overthrown? Four years ago it was the
first, strongest warrior on the battlefield, in a position to dominate
and lead the way for years to come. Now its probably still the
strongest warrior on the field, but its curled up cowering in a little
disfunctional ball under a tree, whispering to itself "I'm still the
best, I'm still the strongest, I'm getting better all the time, etc.",
while the battle wages on around it, and lesser competitors take the
spoils of war. We are like the warriors' loyal little army, urging our
warrior to "get up, fight"! But it just sits there, rocking back and
forth, ignoring us, ignoring the battle, staring blankly into space.
How much longer should we carry this guy's flag? It's professional
suicide!
You mention some successes Apple is having. Getting their toes in
places that would not take a look a few years back. I wonder what the
state of the game would be today if we were using WO with a hundred
programmers constantly working to improve it. We would have a state of
the art development and deployment tool.
It already is state-of-the-art. Has been for years. NOBODY knows it.
Probably never will.
But would we have a company to buy these products from? Would Apple
have made progress in other areas? Perhaps we would be running WO 6.5
on OS 10.1.55, installed on a colourful G3 iMac.
It wouldn't take that much. Let the current development team do their
work. They do GREAT work. Just get 2 or 3 competent PR folks in there
to make sure WebObjects is at least part of the general IT/Enterprise
dialog, and free up a modest advertising budget. We (you, me, and the
other readers of this list) could in large part take care of the rest!
Market success would actually enable a quicker pace of innovation.
I have said this on this forum before, but while I don't like feeling
neglected any less than the next guy I have to assume that the people
running this company have knowledge and experience I will never have.
They didn't get where they are by taking short cuts (well, most of the
time anyway).
I used to feel that way. I still do about the regions of Apple outside
of WebObjects. But keep in mind, Apple has several notable debacles
under its belt. I think this is one of them. I used to think, "these
guys (the WO team at Apple) surely know more than the rest of us do.
They are working on something. They understand what they have here. Be
patient." But I am starting to smell the stink of blatant
incompetence. There is NO ONE on this list who does not feel to some
degree that Apple has squandered an opportunity for greatness with
WebObjects. They might express it in different ways, to different
degrees, at different volumes - but I would defy anyone to say that
Apple has done this right.
When it comes down to it, I am using a product that I admire and
appreciate. I would like more, but unfortunately in this game there are
no cheats we can type in to give Apple all the resources it needs to
conquer the PC world. And when it comes to Microsoft, honestly I would
prefer to be beaten by them (market-share wise) than to be like them!
Perhaps there should be a little less grumbling and more understanding
that Apple can only do so much at one time. The last thing I want is to
abuse the people working so hard to give us this product, and drive
them away to somewhere where they are appreciated more.
My own grumbles are not directed at the developers of the tools - they
are pulling their weight and then some. I think that the engineers
working so hard to build our product, would be better served by a
developer community that demands more support for them. Surely they
get frustrated same as we do. Do you think they want to devote their
lives and considerable talents to a losing cause? WebObjects is like
the neglected step-daughter Cinderella. These people (WO engineers)
deserve the proper marketing effort by Apple more than any of us.
Game over?
Game over? It pains me to say it, but I think the game was probably
over long before I caught on. The battle has moved on to another hill.
We're left standing here, carrying the WebObjects crest, next to our
talented yet dysfunctional warrior, saying "What just happened here?".
Thanks,
Trae
_______________________________________________
webobjects-dev mailing list | email@hidden
Help/Unsubscribe/Archives: http://www.lists.apple.com/mailman/listinfo/webobjects-dev
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.