Random thoughts from HP World:

HP's commitment to MPE
------------------------------------
All of the HP brass I heard, Carly, Ann Livermore, Winston, Duane Zitzner
(sp), emphasized HPs commitment to their MPE customers.  All of the e-mails
and recent eruptions of unhappiness here on 3000-L evidently made a real
impression.  Everything Ann, Winston and company said about their
commitment is fine and good to hear, but I was still unsatisfied.

What I was hoping they would talk about more were specific plans to grow
the MPE user base.  Without growth in the user base, the platform is
dead.  And yet, the only time growth was mentioned in all the presentations
I heard was when Ann mentioned - in passing - that HP will continue to try
to grow the user base in specific vertical markets.  HP needs to talk a lot
more about their marketing strategy for attracting new users before I am
truly convinced that they see this as a viable platform.

(Mark Klein said that HP seems to treat the MPE user base like the weird
kid the family hides in the closet.  Anyone who read books about someone
with the initials HP will understand the reference.)

Contrasts
----------------
The first session I attended was Joe Geiser's excellent tutorial on
webifying the HP3000.  The last session I attended was Wirt Atmar's
excellent tutorial on webifying the HP3000.  The contrast could not have
been greater.  Joe presented the "old" way of doing things: n-tier
client-server architecture where an HTML client interacted with an
application server like Cold Fusion or ASP running on an NT server, which
in turn did gets and puts to remote IMAGE databases via Active-X controls
working through ODBC and Image/SQL.  State is grafted onto the stateless
HTTP protocol via cookies, hidden variables, or URL queries.  Complex,
fragile, requiring lots of CPU cycles spread across three computers, and
requiring at least some knowledge of HTML, server-side scripting languages,
ADO (DOA?), ODBC, and Image/SQL.

Wirt, by contrast, presented what will soon become the "new" way of doing
things:  terminal-host architecture with a simple virtual cable between the
server and the client using QCTerm.  No HTML, ODBC, ADO, SQL, application
servers, etc.  Robust, simple.  The architecture is fully stated.  All the
developer needs to know is how to access IMAGE, and how to read STDIN and
write STDLIST.  And yet, with the graphic capabilities of QCTerm, the
screen can be just as nice looking as any HTML screen.  The active objects
of QCTerm make it as easy for the user to enter data as any GUI program.

Certainly, there will be occasions where the old way of doing things will
be necessary.  But I am convinced that the new way will become the way many
data-entry applications will be done.


Acronyms
-------------
Old acronym: TLA - three-letter acronym.
New acronym: xTLA - extensible three-letter acronym (thanks to Terry Floyd)


Names and faces
-----------------------
It was very nice to finally meet in person Wirt Atmar, Rene Woc, Steve
Rittenour, Neil Harvey, Gavin Scott, Donna Garverick, Ted Ashton, Greg
Stigers, Lane Rollins, Ron Balboni, Bruce Hobbs, Terry Floyd, David Floyd,
Gary Jackson and many others.


Tom Brandt
Northtech Systems, Inc.
http://www.northtech.com/