Bruce writes:
> Joe Geiser writes:
]much snipping]
>
> >flood the market with the news
> >both during the port, and when it's ready for release - and
> >get the vendor to do the same ("HEY - WE ARE PORTING TO THE
> >HP3000 - AND WE SUPPORT THE PLATFORM!")
>
> Except that everyone will know it's a lie, since the developer
invested
> little or nothing. That's not "support" -- at least, it's not the kind
of
> support that will do anything for the long-term future of the
platform.
>
> Besides, the vendor is probably already investing their own money in
an
> NT port, and HP will get to sell the hardware anyway. Why should they
pay
> someone to port to MPE when they can just sit back and collect revenue
> from their Wintel product line?
>
> -- Bruce

If it is time to work on the long term future of the 3000, then perhaps
we should be looking toward the future of applications rather than
trying to bring the successes of the past. Who will compete with SAP?
What is wrong with SAP? These applications should be under development
now! Not just "web enabled," but built from the ground up for a
distributed networked "webbed" environment, with support for multiple
client platforms and (most important) designed for the business needs of
today (the 21st century, not the 1970s and 80s).

CSY, with the 918DX developers, needs to do everything it can to promote
development and marketing toward the innovative future. Development
tools and Image/sql have to be ready to support this future [maybe add
Java objects, BLOBs, RPC calls, and 64 bit support to Image, updating
Image to the needs of the future?]. Promote and enhance VARs selling
integrated, solution packages. Joint marketing and support arrangements
- with mutual investment by HP, the software vendor, and the VAR. The
only missing would be IT mind share.

How to get IT mind share?
Perhaps HP should take a page from Microsoft and ATT -> give MPE away
with the hardware, but you can order NT or Unix at extra cost if you
prefer. Maybe make MPE/iX source code available to Universities (like
Unix used to be). Or, perhaps donate a lot of MPE hardware and technical
resources to the Free Software Foundation. There must be something
better.

Are we hungry enough to develop the innovative IT solutions to today's
factory, office, and/or sales needs?

How do we attract young IT professionals to learn, appreciate, and use
the 3000?

Richard Gambrell
It's my opinion and it's worth what you paid for it.