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From: jordan@cruzio.com (Jordan Bortz)
Subject: Re: ParcPlace dumps OS/2, VSE, AND Jigsaw, and MAC!!!
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Date: Thu, 30 Jan 1997 02:41:02 GMT
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I think we're in agreement here, Ron, as I've lobbied PP since 1990 to
drop support for the Macintosh and OS/2 and focus on Windows.
Of course, 7 years later, no native widgets eh?? What a surprise - I
told them this would be the result of them writing their own Interface
Builder (VisualWorks) instead of licensing mine (Tigre).

There *are* only a finite number of programmers around, eh?
How can you do two or three things well in a tight window? The result
was to have 10 things done poorly.

I'm not saying a belated sense of what to do "right" may be in order,
but how does that fit in the puzzle of what they were doing only 3 or
4 months ago, and what have they done over the past few years?

Also, I dont think a full fledged retreat, back into emulation widgets
and "CORBA" software is going to win friends...Especially when their
"Server" product isnt even multithreaded and only recently could do
non-blocking API calls.

You make an impression on the low end, and build higher end products
on it... (VB, Java, C et al).. You don't start at the rarefied
Stratosphere (CORBA apps *yikes*) and hope that people hear about the
product.

I dont see the world screaming for CORBA; I guess at this point what
I'm seeing is more flailing than strategy, but I hate to paint a dark
cloud.

But I have to call them as  I see 'em!

	Jordan


jeffries@ic.net (Ronald E Jeffries) wrote:

>On Wed, 29 Jan 1997 03:11:47 GMT, Timothy Reaves <reaves@unix.asb.com>
>wrote:
>>1) ParcPlace has stoped all VSE development. 
>>2) Ditto Jigsaw. 
>>3) OS/2 and the Mac will no longer see new developments.
>>They have further stated that their company's long term goal
>>is to make Distributed Wave their sole product. DW is to be a merger of
>>VWave and DST.

>I hate to continually be MrSunshineAndLight (a role for which I am
>uniquely ill-suited), but this seems like a good strategy  for
>ParcPlace.  OS/2 and Mac have been essentially zero percent of their
>business for a long time, and from a business viewpoint should be
>dropped.

>It makes little business sense to support two versions, as it adds
>people and work with little real return on the investment.  (This in
>spite of the fact that I personally prefer VSE to VW by quite a
>margin.)

>Combining these strategies gives them a chance to focus their
>attention on things they can do well, and perhaps even to start making
>some money.

>I do hope that someone will pick up the VSE technology from them
>(though I wonder whether they'd release it) and turn it into the
>entry-level Smalltalk, and the definitive Windows development system.
>It could excel at both of these and make someone a lot of money.

>It's not good for us, at least at first blush, as it reduces the
>available software ... but they had already managed to reduce the
>available vendors, which was more important.

>ParcPlace is stll pretty low on my management savvy list, but this
>seems to me to be a rather sensible strategy.  I'm not entirely happy
>with what it does for ME, but it could be good for their company.

>Regards,


>Ron Jeffries
>Smalltalker
>How do I know what I think until I see what I type?


