Hello All MPE and IMAGE users,
As most of you are hopefully already aware, SIGImage/SQL
will as usual be meeting at HPWorld - LA this year. The
meeting is scheduled to run for two hours; starting at
11:00 on Wednesday 25 September 2002 in Room 406B of the
LACC... Right after CEO Carly Fiorina at 10:00 and Ann
Livermore at 10:30; and right before Peter Blackmore at
13:00 and Michael Capellas at 13:30... ;-)
Please NOTE (see below for why): I have asked Interex
to try and put us in a bigger room; either by opening
the divider wall to 406A or moving us "next door" to
408A or etc. I just made the request, so Interex has
not had a chance to respond yet. Please stay alert for
the possibility of a last-minute room change for
SIGImage/SQL.
Here is the high-level summary; driven largely by the
11-14 announcement of HP end-of-sales and HP end-of-
support for the HP e3000:
(1) First hour from 11:00 - 12:00 will focus on what
might be called SIGImage/SQL routine and customary
business; for the most part pretty much as in prior
years. Details follow.
(2) The second hour from 12:00 - 13:00 is intended to
be a more general "MPE and IMAGE users open forum"; to
provide an initial on-site opportunity to present,
discuss, and organize options, needs, and possibilities
for continuing to run MPE and IMAGE both before and
after HP exits the e3000 sales business in October 2003;
and then reaches end of HP support in 2006. SIGMPE
Chair John Burke has graciously offered to participate
in leading this special second hour. Again: More
details in "Section 2" below.
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PLEASE RESPOND if you want lunch at SIGImage/SQL:
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I have taken a wild stab at how many people I think
might show up for the last hour of SIGImage/SQL this
year, given above special "open forum". But to try and
avoid either wasting or being short of lunches, if you
expect to attend all or just the last hour of SIGImage
at HPW this year and want lunch at that meeting, please
send email reply directly to me (and ONLY to me; be kind
and spare all on 3000-L... :-) ):
Put just "SIGIMAGE LUNCH" (without the quotes) in title.
<plug(s)>: Other highly recommended sessions at HPW:
Dave Wilde's HP e3000 Strategic Session Update at 14:00
Wednesday in Room 411. Also the OpenMPE "Life After
2006" session from 16:00 - 18:00 Wednesday in Room 408A
(Interex web site sez only one hour for OpenMPE session,
but that's wrong: It will be two hours). Then HP e3000
Management Panel at 08:00 Thursday in Room 408A: HP
panelists will be Dave Wilde, Ross McDonald, and others.
Finally SIG SYSMAN at 11:00 Thursday followed by SIGMPE
at 12:00 Thursday. Both SIGs are currently scheduled to
meet in LACC Room 406B.
SIDEBAR FULL DISCLOSURE and DISCLAIMER: Some of you may
be aware that the current Chair of SIGImage/SQL i.e. the
writer, is also a member of the OpenMPE Inc Board of
Directors. While the "general MPE and IMAGE user forum"
second hour of the SIGImage/SQL meeting may in some or
several cases borrow from information published on the
www.OpenMPE.org web site, second hour of the SIGImage
meeting is not part of the official OpenMPE meeting. The
writer will only note it seems prudent for SIGImage/SQL,
SIGMPE, SIGSYSMAN, OpenMPE Inc, Interex, and other MPE
SIGs to work for maximum cooperation and synergy in
advocating both the short and long-term interests of MPE
and IMAGE users as HP moves towards the EXIT sign.
APOLOGIES to Denys Beauchemin: I know Denys scheduled
the traditional hp3000-L lunch-time get-together at HPW
this year at 12:00 on Wednesday; i.e.: Last hour of
the SIGImage/SQL meeting. Confess I'm not quite sure
if Denys still intends to have the 3000-L lunch bunch
eat in the general lunch area or come to SIGImage/SQL.
If you have no particular items of interest in the MPE
or IMAGE arena this year and 3000-L lunch is elsewhere,
then by all means go for it. OTOH if 11-14 announcement
by HP and its aftermath is something you are more than
a little interested in, you might want to lobby Denys to
join SIGImage/SQL at high noon; or failing that catch
your fellow 3000-L'ers at a party or etc. instead
(sorry, Denys (yes: I'll still vote for you.. ;-) ) ).
CONFESSION: In a prior message that provided prelim
info on the HPW SIGImage/SQL meeting, think I said SIG
attendees would get the same box lunch as attendees
eating in general lunch area... Well, turns out that's
NOT correct: I now understand that while noon-time SIGs
will get box lunches, general lunch that day will be
"non-box"; i.e.: A "real meal". I thought about this
for a bit, and concluded that if avoiding a box lunch is
your highest priority that day, you likely don't have
any real burning MPE or IMAGE issues anyway. I will add
that for those who DO have just one or two or a bunch of
MPE and IMAGE issues they are concerned about, the LACC
Galaxy Food Court looks to be more-or-less just under
the Level 2 meeting rooms. That's not free, but if MPE
and IMAGE are important to you, you may consider it
worth your while to supplement the box lunch with a
couple bucks out of your own pocket.
Now...: Those "additional details and rationale":
(1) SIGImage/SQL customary agenda items (11:00 - 12:00):
[a] The CSY R&D Database Lab will give their "State
of the Product" update. While a whole raft of "strategic
concerns" has grabbed the spotlight since 11-14, I think
users will be pleasantly surprised at how much progress
has been made on what were 10 outstanding items on the
"Now / Soon Available in Image/SQL" list; including
some major enhancements to the IMAGE core. The complete
"Now / Soon" list will be handed out at the SIG meeting.
[b] Given 11-14 and the only-13-months-remaining
prior to end-of-HP-sales for the HP e3000 (which as I
understand it means the end of active development other
than major bug fixes), it was consensus of the Image/SQL
Advisory Committee (ISAC) that on balance it would not
be prudent to press HP to undertake additional major
enhancements to the IMAGE core at this time; beyond
what will be announced under (1)-[a] above. Clearly
one would not want HP to issue a major new IMAGE release
just before end-of-HP-sales. As a practical matter that
probably leaves only six months or so to as much as
possible insure that the latest IMAGE release for 7.5
and whatever final MPE "parking release" beyond that may
(or may not) follow is as stable as possible. If there
are any users who disagree with that position (violently
or otherwise), please make your opinions known at the
SIGImage/SQL meeting and / or to this list. AFAIK there
has been zero disagreement with this position so far.
[c] Because of (1)-[b] above, we currently have no
plans to conduct a 2003 SIGImage/SQL enhancement ballot.
Who knows what might happen in the future if OpenMPE
really takes off or other possibilities materialize, but
for right now status quo. If anyone would like to see
the final SIGImage/SQL Ballot again (no change from what
was handed out at prior SIG meeting), I can post a text-
only copy to 3000-L. Will also have a few clean copies
along at HPW, but right now am not planning on burning
yet more hard copies of what has already been handed out
and published on the web.
[d] Should SIGImage/SQL continue to remain an
organized and at least somewhat active entity after
HPW-LA ??.. If yes, what should we focus on ??.. My
personal opinion is that there are and likely will still
be IMAGE issues to attend to for some time yet. It will
be up to attendees to make the collective final decision.
If collective will to continue, there will be the usual
election of officers.
[e] Also note that without objection if SIGImage/SQL
members decide to hang in there for now, I would propose
to generally (at least for the most part) leave issues
that face users who decide to totally migrate away from
both Image/SQL and MPE to the new SIGMIGRATE headed up
by Nicolas Fortin of Speedware, HP, and HP's "Platinum
Partners" and other vendors who are actively competing
for this already heavily-populated space. SIGImage/SQL
should IMO continue to focus on running TurboIMAGE under
MPE for the long term, whether that be on real MPE boxes
or under a potential emulator. One possible exception
that we may want to consider: HP Eloquence. See:
http://www.hp-eloquence.com/
HP Eloquence is an integrated applications development
and runtime environment that is (I think still) "almost
but not quite 100 percent" TurboIMAGE compatible; that
currently runs on Windows, LINUX, and HP-UX. Eloquence
lead engineer Michael Marxmeier is expected to be at the
SIGImage meeting and I will ask him to identify himself
there; but if you want the whole HP Eloquence story
recommend you attend his session from 08:00 - 10:00 on
Wednesday in Room 408A. HP Eloquence has received a
QUALIFIED endorsement from the ISAC; for those sites who
have ALREADY DECIDED that they are going to migrate.
*** PLEASE NOTE ***: That does NOT mean the ISAC concurs
with the suggestion that all IMAGE users migrate... :-)
(2) "MPE and IMAGE users open forum" (12:00 - 13:00):
Box lunch and / or bring your own munchies. John Burke
and Ken Sletten moderating. There will be no attempt to
"tightly structure" this part of the meeting; we'll see
what attendees want to make of it and use it for. Note
that while HP CSY personnel are certainly invited to
attend, they are not being asked or expected to take an
active part in this segment of the session (but they can
certainly participate if they want to). This will be
the first scheduled session at HPW where IMAGE and MPE
users will have a chance to express or at least start
working on an on-site "collective consensus" (if such a
thing can be made to exist). To perhaps provide a
catalyst for discussion, I throw out a few factoids and
"homework assignments" as recommended reading prior to
or just after getting to HPW:
[a] In the 2002 Interex SIB (done after 11-14), the
runaway winner (even though voters were restricted to
casting only half of their votes for it) was: "Identify
a way for users and developers to continue to run MPE
in some supported fashion after end of HP sales and
support, ....". This got 1100 votes.
[b] The # 2 vote getter on 2002 SIB was: "Port MPE
and it's subsystems to Intel or create an MPE emulator
for Linux. In the alternative, enable a third party to
do so." In response to the Interex SIB results, I think
HP has already made it publicly and eminently clear that
THEY have no plans to port MPE / IMAGE or create an
emulator. This means that if an emulator is going to
happen a third-party will have to do it. This item got
631 votes. Next highest item got 200 votes and drifted
down from there. This item along with [a] above got 49
percent of ALL votes.
[c] There were 391 respondents to the OpenMPE Inc
"Short Survey" (significantly more than the last couple
Interex SIBs, IIRC). Results are still up at:
http://www.openmpe.org/OpenMPEShortSurvey.htm
This also lists the baseline for what has become known
as the "gang of 6" requirements to facilitate the use
of MPE and IMAGE after end of HP sales and HP support.
[d] (Hoping I am not giving away more than I am
supposed to): At HP World you will be able to pick up
the show issue of The3000 NewsWire. Along with what I
am sure will be lots of other good stuff for MPE users,
I am told that it contains a major piece by SIGMPE Chair
John Burke in his capacity as a frequent NewsWire
contributor; where among other things John undertook to
"embrace and extend" the baseline version of the OpenMPE
Inc "gang of 6"; significantly expanding and enhancing
the wording of the existing six from his perspective;
and then turning them into a proposed "gang of 8" by
adding two new and likely (by recent history on 3000-L)
popular items. Reading the show issue of the NewsWire
prior to coming to the second part of SIGImage/SQL at
noon highly recommended. If you have additional specific
suggestions and / or general comments about the future
of MPE and IMAGE, this will be a place where you can
start refining them with your peers; to hopefully give
all a bit of a "jump start" on the rest of a very busy
HPW schedule....
FOOTNOTE: If anyone wishes to formally suggest
modifications or additions to the OpenMPE Inc "gang of
6" requirements: Please attend the OpenMPE session at
16:00 Wednesday....
Ken Sletten
SIGImage/SQL Chair
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