Hello Everyone, Here is my third and final installment of my Recap - and remember I'm just some guy from the list who attended the Conference and the following words do not imply any official product release information.
Java J2EE, .NET and Witango """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Looks kinda natural, when you see all three together on the same line, eh? There were many eye opening events at the first ever Witango Developer Conference, with many of them having special personal meaning to me - such as meeting and making great friends and being so well received by my peers. Thank you again. Of course, Phil delivered some of the richest content at the Conference. The work on the new v5.0 Server and Editor is extraordinary and the sense of speed, stability and ability of these products runs very deep. Out of all the topics, new features presented, bug fixes, platform issues and new suggestions discussed - hands-down the most blow away revelation was Phil transforming a complete, functional TAF file into a J2EE compliant Java code file. I was speech-less (but only for a second) - and I don't even like Java :-) The implications are enormous. This new work is for v6.0, and to date work has only been done for the Java conversion - but what Phil did was demonstrate that the end goal is obtainable. In very general terms, the goal is to allow your Witango coding skills to take you into the Java and .NET arena and compete! Credit goes to a group of talented University Researchers in Australia, that Phil has enlisted, which call themselves the 'Compiler Optimization Group' - and shame on me because I can't recall at the moment the name of the University precisely (but maybe that's not for public consumption right now anyway?). The group has taken the XML format of a TAF, which contains all your code and logic and transformed it into the equivalent code and logic of another language. This is a topic that has been hotly discussed on the list in the past - theoretically we knew it was possible, but was it achievable? Phil showed us it is! Many technical aspects of this new capability were discussed, but keep in mind this is a work in progress, but Phil stated that their agenda includes transforming TCFs into JavaBeans and likely supporting C# with .NET. Likewise, your transformations will include a set of special library files to support Witango functionality in these other languages and that this particular 'feature' will likely be released as a separate add-on product to the Studio. Once deployed - your transformed Witango code will be independent from the Witango Server. So, what does that mean to you? I can't speak for you, so I'm going to be selfish and speak for myself (<tongue-in-cheek>like I never do that, eh.</tongue-in-cheek>). I love coding in Witango, but I work for a Company with it's roots in the Accounting Industry - and the Accounting Industry is mainly Windows based. Couple this with the fact we re-sell and support, among other products, MS Great Plains which has already started moving to .NET. In the future, you'll likely see nearly every serious Windows based Accounting solution migrate to .NET. I have a great job, and a great boss, but unless I can get on the .NET band-wagon eventually - I'm going to lose out. So, I'm being dragged (seemingly kicking-and-screaming) into .NET. Not that I don't like the concept of .NET where in fact I admire the architecture that it's founded on very much - but it's a huge leap to start writing .NET from scratch. The most painful part of writing .NET was that I was going to have to leave Witango behind - but anymore. For me, Witango's new code transformation ability is profound. I've spent years building a huge code base of files and work in Witango for our Company and the prospect of throwing it away sent chills down my spine - until last week. Keep in mind, Phil promised us he is still going to support and grow the Witango Server platform - but now he has given me more choices. The advantages I now gain in speed of development (RAD) and deployment in these other languages will be enormous, because of Witango. When Witango v6.0 hits the market - there will be few boundaries in it's way, if any, and the advantages will be all ours. "Would you like your code written in Java, .NET or Witango?" Witango Marketing """"""""""""""""""""""" At the risk of alienating myself from the list, here's my opinion: I'm a developer, and normally I purposely avoid anything to do with Sales or Marketing. But I do know one thing, the success and standing of Witango can NOT rest solely on the shoulders of Phil and Sophie and With Enterprise. At the Conference, Phil and Sophie eluded to some very powerful partnerships and positioning they are working towards, but no names were forthcoming - and rightly so. To achieve integrity, you need trust and Phil and Sophie don't want to give us false hopes, so we need some patience. In the meantime, I've had to ask myself "why have I hung out on this list for so long?". -- Was it to get help for the work I do in Witango - even though it WAS a dying product? Yes. -- Was it to get help in other areas of my work? Yes. To get anything in life, you have to give too. Now I could rattle off a great big list of suggestions for you right now, in how you can help promote Witango - but I can't make you do them, so I'll leave it up to you to figure out if and when and how to help. It doesn't matter how you do it, as long as you do it willingly and creatively. I started http://xml-extra.net some time ago, and it's still a work in progress, but this is not the only thing I'm working towards to help support and promote Witango (and myself in the process). When these other things come on-line, I'll let you know. Phil and Sophie are not asking you to do anything - I am. Sincerely, your colleague and friend, Scott Cadillac http://xml-extra.net [EMAIL PROTECTED] ________________________________________________________________________ TO UNSUBSCRIBE: send a plain text/US ASCII email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with unsubscribe witango-talk in the message body
