Portable News
PB Zone
iBook News
iBook Zone
Forum
MacDebate.com
Mac OS X
X Appeal
Quotes
WWDC 2003 Field Report: Day 0
by Jeff Szuhay
<jeff@szuhay.org>
Sunday, June 22, 2003
|
Quick table of contents |
Introduction
First, I would like to thank PowerBook Zone <http://www.pbzone.com> for hosting these accounts of this year's WWDC.
These reports are intended to relate my personal experiences at Apple's annual World Wide Developer's Conference -- essentially a week-long geekfest. Unless you have been to one before, you really have no idea what this event is like; my reports can only give you a single account, mine. I do not intend to dig up rumors or divulge information typically under NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement).
My objective is to relate the happenings for those of you who can't make it or for those of you who are planning on attending.
This event is primarily a social event; a way for programmers to meet other programmers; a way for us to attach faces to the names we've seen on mailing lists; and to let serendipity happen. Regardless, this is intended to be fun. It usually is quite intense.
I am going to let the mood of the event determine my writing style. Most often it will be rambling; hopefully it will be coherent but from past experience I know that coherency becomes difficult. But you can decide.
So, read on, and enjoy!
My Background
I have been a computer programmer since about 1983 and have been bedazzled by the Macintosh since I first got a chance to use one in 1985. This is ever more true with Mac OS X; the shear beauty, depth, and color of the Aqua interface continues to enthrall me.
But, don't be mislead: I have worked with many, many types of systems. I'll take _any_ computer over none, but when I have a choice, I always prefer a Macintosh. I missed the whole NeXT thing, but not really since we now have OS X.
Throughout my career, I have been fortunate to work with some very bright and engaging people who have given me the opportunity to do things with computers that I never imagined (ever tune a mainframe system?). In my 20 years of computering, I feel fortunate to have had an unusually broad set of experiences.
For the past 5 years, I was the lead (only) Macintosh programmer for Psychology Software Tools. When they decided to abandon the Macintosh market for their product, I decided to leave the company as I did not want to do Windows programming.
Currently, I am building on some of those skills (game-like development considerations) for a real-time dance animation project of my own creation. Here, as in most of OS X, I am using open standards over proprietary ones and only building tools as I need them. But for the most part, this app will rely on QuickTime and QuickTime VR, Objective C, OpenGL, and Quesa (a now open-source project that was once Apple's QuickDraw 3D). I intend to rely heavily on OS X's frameworks as well as Python and ABC music for its simple notation, MIDI generation and score printing capabilities. I do not intend to use Java; sorry, but I just don't like the language or its massive libraries.
My Expectations
Okay, so given my current project, my main interests in this year's WWDC are
- the state of Apple's development tools
- the state of QuickTime; with luck, I hope to meet Deege Cooley (sic) creator of PupptTime and talk with him about his use of QuickTime.
- news of Apple-support extensibility architectures
In general, I'm hoping to get an update on these Mac OS X technologies and some miscellaneous stuff
- where's EOF for Objective C (not everything is a web app and, as I've stated, I don't like Java)
- meet Jason Adams who recently re-released Notebook app
- meet and chat with past acquaintences and Apple employees
Coming to San Francisco
As has been my habit, I like to fly into San Francisco on Saturday so I have time to get acclimated and settled in. I got in late in the evening and learned that the BART will soon be coming directly to SFO. Great, this will save both time and money in the future. The BART is one of America's great commuter systems. I wish more cities committed to this rather than ever expanding yet clogged highways.
While waiting to fly (man, they are not kidding about getting to the airport early -- if you have a security glitch, as I did, that eat a _lot_ of time), I happened to meet and talk with Robert Snyder, Lead Research Programmer and Director of Data Managements Services at Penn State University. We mostly talked about their use of WebObjects and speculated about upcoming WWDC announcements. To me, this is always more fun than talking about sports teams or politics, especially with others who understand the Mac platform.
NOTE: I play a little game of trying to hand out and collect as many business cards as possible. You'd be amazed at how useful these little scraps of paper can be... or not.
Sunday registration
I left my hotel around noon to find the convention center and register. This is a first, I think, for this conference to be in San Francisco so I wanted to find the place -- Moscone West -- and get familiar with the locale. I found out that Moscone West is a brand new convention hall. Man, is that sucker huge.
Registration was a breeze. Doing this early is highly recommended. I received my obligatory badge, t-shirt (short sleeve this year) and laptop bag. The laptop bag is huge! Nearly 20" diagonal. Hmm... does this portend a larger PowerBook in our future? Don't get excited; it's pretty slim evidence. Those 17" PowerBooks are already massive (but hey, that's what "desktop replacement" is all about).
While I'm there, I found it very easy to just walk up to a group of developers and listen or chat. Maybe its me, or maybe its the sense of community from being a Macintosh developer that it is just comfortable meeting new people. I had an interesting chat with a doctor from Finland, still a bit jet lagged, who works in the emerging field of "metabolomics" (look it up, or email me if you want to know).
Later, when I went back to Moscone -- mostly to get my email via Airport -- I met some guys from the Apple Pro products group and the (student) developer of MacJournal. I also ran into Gordon Apple whom I'd met at a prior WWDC. In the course of our conversation, a number of other attendees came and went. I did meet an Aussie, Gerald Brower (sic) and we talked a bit about scientific computing. I also found out where the Aussie's will be partying. This is important because I enjoy large quantaties of beer like the Aussies. Lastly, before returning to my hotel, I happened upon both C.K. Haun of Apple Developer Relations and Godfrey DiGiorgio, project manager for tools. As might become commonplace, I'd met both of them at prior WWDCs so it was nice to say "hello." Godfry only hinted that there were going to be some big things (for developers, at least) announced at the keynote tomorrow).
With that, I left to enjoy a great meal at Puccini & Pinetti around Union Square and back to my hotel room to prepare for tomorrow.
Have a question or comment? I appreciate your feedback
Published by Doug B. Landry and contributing staff. Trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., and others reserved. ©2003 Delta Design. Publishing headquarters is located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Index version 1.1.2
