Insights - Nov 1993

Barbara Britt, Product Manager of OS/2 Development Tools including The Developer Connection for OS/2, took time out of her busy schedule to talk to Stacey Miller, Editor of The Developer Connection News, about the future of OS/2 Development Tools and specifically The Developer Connection program.

The following is an edited transcript of that conversation.

SM: Barbara, beside being Product Manager for The Developer Connection for OS/2, what other development tools are you responsible for?

BB: I'm also responsible for the OS/2 Developer's Toolkit and the OS/2 Device Driver Source Kit (DDK). In addition, I have responsibility for the Workplace OS development tools, And, in the future you'll be seeing pre-release copies of those toolkits that support our Workplace OS development as we move that development onto the PowerPC.

SM: You said "in the future". Can you project how long in the future?

BB: Information has already been starting to go out about Workplace OS, the types of tools needed, and the development environment to the development communities. We will start rolling out the Workplace OS toolkits early next year on The Developer Connection for OS/2 CD-ROM.

SM: The Developer Connection for OS/2 has been creating a lot of excitement since its announcement in August. Why do you believe this to be the case?

BB: I think The Developer Connection for OS/2 is receiving this good response because we've been listening to the customers, and we are providing what they've asked for. They've asked for the latest tools and latest pre-release versions of the Operating Systems as soon as they are available and the Developer Connection does that. We also provide the latest information in The Developer Connection News. They also like all the other extra things on the CD-ROM, such as the demo products.

SM: What steps are you taking to make sure that The Developer Connection for OS/2 is meeting the needs of developers?

BB: We are continuing to get feedback For example, we've put a CompuServe forum together exclusively for people who have purchased The Developer Connection, so we can get that feedback. Also, we are talking to people at conferences. We take all of the feedback back here [to the development lab] to work on getting the right tools and levels of information on the CD-ROM to answer the requests of our customers.

SM: A lot of folks are comparing The Developer Connection to Microsoft's Developer Network. How do you respond to this comparison?

BB: I think our focus is different than Microsoft's Developer Network, and I think that just because they're both delivered on a CD-ROM will invite comparison. I believe that the key purpose of the Developer Network is to provide information. We are not only providing information, but the toolkits, pre-release software, demos, and samples. I believe we're striving to satisfy a different market; to solve a different problem.

SM: The Developer Connection for LAN Systems was pre-released in Orlando; what is the difference between that Developer Connection and The Developer Connection for OS/2?

BB: The Developer Connection is a program; it is not just a product. The program is designed to get the right set of tools out to the right customers. In the future, you'll be seeing more announcements of other Developer Connections. Now, the Developer Connection for OS/2 is the one for base OS/2 development. If you're specifically developing in the LAN environment, you would need the Developer Connection for LAN Systems. Since it is a program, the user interface, the browser, and the catalog functions will all be the same. Also, ordering information and support will come from one common area. Therefore, each additional program will be an extension of The Developer Connection for OS/2.

SM: What about other Developer Connection programs?

BB: We're looking at providing a Developer Connection for Objects, which may or may not be part of the base system, because objects is such an important part of the whole base. So if its not a separate offering, it will be a separate section to The Developer Connection for OS/2. I've also talked about the Developer Connection for Workplace OS, which will run on the PowerPC. We're also looking at expanding The Developer Connection program to run on some of the UNIX-based boxes to provide tools for UNIX developers.

SM: What are the plans to have these additional Developer Connection programs available?

BB: Most of these programs will be available next year. We're rolling them out over time. Workplace OS will be delivered first, with the rest of the programs to follow. You'll eventually see The Developer Connection as a family of programs.

SM: Some of the developers are saying that the first CD-ROM did not contain enough sample code. How would you respond to that?

BB: Everyone needs more samples, and we would agree that we need to provide more samples. But what we're trying to do right now is to put together a list of the most-requested samples. Then, we'll either ask people in IBM development to write them; or we'll ask people outside of IBM to donate them. For instance, if you had a particular favorite sample to solve a problem, we'd like to evaluate putting it on the CD-ROM. We are developing a sample architecture to ensure that the programmer gets consistent information on how to use the sample, as well as the problem that the sample is solving. We would like to put the sample architecture on the CD-ROM, so if you are writing a sample, you could follow that architecture. That way, everybody has the same base to work from.

SM: What other improvements can you tell us about?

BB: We want to improve the Browser. We want to add phrase and Boolean searches. We want to improve the on-line information, as well as the Catalog functions. We also want to look at adding more books.

SM: What about hardware? Is there any plan to tie the Device Driver Source Kit program in with The Developer Connection for OS/2, or do you feel that these will stay two separate offerings?

BB: We've made tremendous strides in providing the Device Driver Source Kit for OS/2. In fact, we've just delivered the first update to that system. We're getting tremendous response that we're providing the right kinds of device driver source code that they need to do their device driver development. This will help hardware support. We are also looking at providing the DDK as part of the Developer Connection program. Again, not everyone is doing device driver development, so it would be just a way to consolidate support and have more of a "one stop shopping" place for all of the Development Tools.

SM: The success of Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) is crucial to IBM's success with OS/2. How will being a part of The Developer Connection family help them, and at the same time help IBM?

BB: What we want to do with The Developer Connection is to provide pre-release operating systems to both our ISVs and Corporate customers, so that they can develop and exploit new operating system functions in their applications. Then, they can have the applications ready at the same time the operating system ships. So, when OS/2 comes out with a new function applications will be available that can exploit these new functions right away. This will not only help OS/2, but it will also help the ISVs. They will be able to say, for example, when OS/2 supports OpenDoc, their application will also support OpenDoc. There will be no lag time between a new release of an operating system and applications that exploit those new functions.

SM: Do you believe that The Developer Connection for OS/2 is critical to the success of OS/2?

BB: Tools and programs like The Developer Connection are critical to the success of OS/2. We need to provide software developers with what they need to write applications that support OS/2. And, those applications running on OS/2 are a key to its success.

SM: Thank you, Barbara!