It is with some excitement, both of the positive and negative
sorts, that I am ending my 18-year career as a software developer.
I attended NeXT Developer Camp in May, 1990. However, I was unable
to find work using this incredible technology until late 1991 when I
quit my Unix programming job to take a 6-week contract programming
job with NeXT working at Informix to port WINGZ to NeXTSTEP 2.0 (or
was that NeXTstep 2.0? :-). From there, I spent 5 or so years
developing and maintaining a large NeXTSTEP/OPENSTEP desktop
application that, in its inception, used beta versions of DBKit,
then moved on to ever-increasing versions of EOF. With NeXT
apparently heading towardoblivion, I decided that I had better move
to their only technology that might have a future, WebObjects, if I
wanted software development to remain fun.
Fortunately, NeXT saved Apple (or was it the other way around? :-)
As a result, WebObjects has had more lives than a cat. I have stuck
with it through thick and thin, eventually crossing over to the
mother ship in 2001 where I continued with WebObjects development
internally while providing WebObjects support for organizations
under contract.
I have been extremely fortunate to have been able to develop
applications using NeXT's and now Apple's technologies. I have not
had to deal with the drudgery that most developers face using other
technologies. I'm sure that most of you understand.
But the time has now come to move on to the next phase of my life:
retirement! I have been living in Honolulu since 1997, finally
being able to return after 2 wonderful years in the early 1970's.
But life in Honolulu and the U.S. in general has deteriorated
considerably during my lifetime (and especially during the past few
weeks :-( so I have decided to give Sweden a try. My Swedish-born
wife and I moved to Uppsala on 22 September and are starting our
lives anew. But this time without WebObjects . and without software
development of any kind. Time to learn Svenska.
So I am signing off webobjects-dev and webobjects-deploy. It has
been a genuine pleasure to associate virtually with so many truly
talented and generous people. Few outside this community can really
appreciate the experience.
Lycka till!
Aloha and hej då,
Art Isbell