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Be Newsletter
Issue 17, April 3, 1996
Table of Contents
BE ENGINEERING
INSIGHTS:
Of Base Classes and Flexibility
By Erich Ringewald
After you've spent a few years creating a new platform
behind closed doors, huddled like mad scientists, it's
possible to lose perspective. That disappears quickly when
you ship a few hundred machines out to developers who simply
want to develop on a great machine. They start to pick
it
apart like crazed weasels, and I mean that in only the most
positive sense. The last few months of supporting the
pioneer Be developers has been very interesting.
The C++ language is one subject that comes up quite a bit.
Some developers love the fact that we've decided to use this
language standard. Others appreciate that we have avoided
the language's more "esoteric" features (multiple
inheritance is frequently mentioned here). Still others
(actually only one or two) have said that although they love
the BeBox and its kits, they just can't program it because
C++ nauseates them. A visceral reaction to semantics!
Admittedly, there is a certain amount of religion in these
positions, but one thing is true: C++ is not known for its
dynamism. Between static binding, the base class feature,
virtual tables, and no garbage collection, C++ is a bit of a
stubborn old aunt who refuses to leave the house. For us,
this presents some problems and challenges, but ones which I
think can be managed if we all modify our mindset a bit.
With the older platforms whose limitations we are trying to
overcome, software (both application and system) has been a
very static thing. It takes about four years for Microsoft
and Apple to develop and publish a new release. Application
software is then stuck on floppies or CDs which spend an
average of nine months in the distribution channel. If we
are going to be able to continue to outrun those platforms,
we need to have a much more flexible attitude about
software
updates and distribution.
Such flexibility in thinking will help us together overcome
some of the static limitations of C++ without locking
ourselves into an API, virtual table layout etc., for all
time. But it's not just to make dealing with C++ easier that
I recommend this, it will be better for our customers as
well. They ask you for new features in your application, you
in turn ask for new system software features to facilitate
them, we implement them, perhaps shifting around a class
layout. We ship you the new version of BeOS, you implement
the new features, we ship the new software together, and the
customer buys the upgraded application from you and thinks
you're the most responsive application developer they've
ever seen.
So how often can we do this? Every four months may be a bit
too frequent--but it will certainly be much more often than
once every four years. The improved communication and
distribution mechanisms afforded by the Internet will help
us show ourselves to be much more responsive than the older
platforms.
BE DEVELOPER
PROFILE:
AMP Productions, Inc
"The BeBox will shine in multimedia," says Tom Ierna,
president of AMP Productions, Inc. Based in Florida, his
5-person company specializes in 35mm slide presentations,
video, computer-based kiosks, and live entertainment,
serving the education and business markets. When four
thousand members of local student clubs convened in Florida,
AMP was there shooting slides and video, which they edited
on-site to produce and deliver a show on the last day --
much like a slide show on the last day of summer camp.
"Customers today want integrated video, computer graphics,
MIDI, and digital sound effects in their slide shows," says
Ierna. "The cost of the hardware, software, and expertise to
produce that kind of presentation is phenomenal: a 15-20
minute show can cost up to $30,000. You almost want to ask
customers to hand over their checkbooks!"
As a small company, AMP is always on the lookout for ways to
make their multimedia productions easier, faster, and less
expensive. And that's exactly why the BeBox caught their
eye. "Out-of-the-box hardware extras are what made us choose
the BeBox,"Ierna says. Especially the MIDI and GeekPort
capabilities, but also the PCI bus architecture, the
CD-quality stereo sound, and the slew of expansion and
connection options. "With the BeBox, we feel like we're
working on the cutting
edge instead of on the 10- to 20-year old technology that
most of today's high-volume computers are based on."
AMP has both short-term and long-term plans for the BeBox.
Short-term, they'll use their Be application internally to
produce the slide presentations, with the BeOS(TM) GUI
replacing their command line-driven programming language
(which has been adopted as the industry standard). "We'll
also use our application to control the slide shows: the
slide projectors will be controlled by the BeBox (most
likely through the GeekPort), our audio will be generated on
the BeBox, and we'll use a control signal from the BeBox to
sync the video." Long term, they hope to see digital video
editing and output on the box, providing a truly integrated
solution.
Ierna doesn't think it will take much to attract multimedia
developers to the Be platform. "Mention true
multiprocessing, true multitasking, multithreading, the
expansion and connection options that the box provides, and
they'll froth at the mouth."
AMP expects to release their Be application in early 1997.
For more information, send an e-mail message to
tom_ierna@mailhost.valpak.com.
Homage
By Jean-Louis Gassée
This week we lost a big man, David Packard, one of the
Founding Fathers of Silicon Valley. The mourning has less an
air of sadness than one of celebration for we are
remembering an accomplished life. There isn't much I can add
to the well-deserved tributes to his business and
philanthropic achievements. "The HP Way," a charmingly
unassuming book, details the philosophy behind the business
"Bill and Dave" built,perhaps the most enduringly successful
company in our industry, good to its shareholders, customers
and employees. I know, I worked there.
Twenty-eight years ago this coming June, Hewlett-Packard
offered me what proved to be the opportunity of a lifetime.
At age 24, I was coming out of what is tolerantly referred
to in California as my psycho-social moratorium. Meaning my
business experience consisted of a string of disconnected
jobs -- descriptions of some would be out of place in this
family publication -- in the food, beverage and
entertainment, pharmaceuticals and insurance fields. I had
no idea what a resume was. So, when I saw the recruitment ad
specifying a math or physics degree, selling experience and
fluent English, I wrote a two-page letter explaining why
they should hire me. They did, in spite of my broken
English. My job was to launch their first desktop computer
in the French market.
Looking back, I shudder sometimes. Placed today in their
situation, would I hire myself? Joining Hewlett-Packard was
a revelation. I came from a culture of distrust and
hostility between management and workers. At HP I grew in an
environment where I was trusted, given a degree of freedom
and responsibility I had not encountered elsewhere, and
found an incredible patience with my combination of
inexperience and strongly held views. I flourished and rose
in the hierarchy as HP became king of the hill in the
desktop computer business, before it missed the early phase
of the PC revolution.
To this day I'm indebted to HP for its kind of schooling. It
was so convincing I came to think every US company conducted
their business in the same humane and efficient way. I was
brought back to reality when I joined another school -- of
hard knocks this time -- at a very East Coast minicomputer
company. A few years later I got an opportunity to practice
both kinds of schooling when I started Apple France. Our
office was across the street from HP so I could hire a few
good men from the old company without disturbing their
commute. We did well and, in obeisance to the Peter
Principle, I was transferred to this country and promoted to
a job for which I had no experience or formal training.
After another five years of schooling in the ways of
Corporate America, I started Be. The HP connection helped in
small and big ways: When HP's credit department was
unwilling to ship a logic analyzer to Steve Sakoman's garage
-- a small but frustrating problem -- John Young's (HP's CEO
at the time) secretary quickly cleared the path. The Big
Problem was fund raising. When we started Be, our idea
looked even crazier than it does today. Windows and Mac
reigned supreme, investors in NeXT and Momenta had been
burned and Go didn't look great either. Kleber Beauvillain,
CEO of HP France and an early Be investor with other HP
Europe luminaries, made the introduction to Credit Lyonnais.
Their venture arm, Innolion, became the lead investor in our
first round. The company would have probably never gotten
off the ground without that connection at a time when most
US venture funds (with one exception, Newtek) found the idea
too risky -- or "too interesting" as the dreadful euphemism
became familiar to us.
As we make the transition from a group developing a product
to a real company, one with developers, business partners,
and customers, I too mourn the passing of a great man. I do
it with admiration for a life well lived, with gratitude for
the opportunities and the schooling, and with the hope I'll
honor my debt in building this business.
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