Am I merely jaded from having attended so many, or are sprawling computer trade shows like Windows World -- with its 190,861 visitors (official count) -- fast becoming lumbering dinosaurs that have outlived their era? I spent nearly five hours walking the exhibit halls at Makuhari Messe one day in June, and viewed (in passing) tens of thousands of products displayed at hundreds of booths. There may have been some imaginative and unique offerings on exhibit, but if so they were submerged in an ocean of "been there, done that" me-too wares. And those displays/demonstrations that piqued my interest were either staffed by know-little "companions" who could answer only very basic questions, or so jammed with gawkers that even trying to ask a question would have meant a long wait.
As the number of companies, products, and users continues to grow, trade shows more and more resemble hulking sauropods with walnut-sized brains. They're doomed to extinction as smaller, sleeker product-promotion species move up the evolutionary ladder, but don't realize it yet. And if it takes a global cataclysm to hasten the inevitable -- well, think "Internet."
That said, I did find Windows World worth the long and inconvenient trek out to Makuhari Messe -- not for the exhibits, but for the keynote addresses. My press pass allowed me to squeeze into a packed auditorium to listen to Microsoft Chairman and CEO Bill Gates deliver the opening keynote address. And later in the afternoon I sat in the same, but now half-filled, auditorium to hear an equally interesting presentation by Alan Baratz, president of JavaSoft. (Being a multi-billionaire conveys enormous drawing power.)
Say what you will about Bill Gates, in person he is adept at conveying his obvious, almost boyish enthusiasm for developments that are "not just changing the computer industry, but changing every industry." The PC, he declared, has had great er impact on communications than the telephone, radio, or TV. And at the forefront of the revolution is the Internet which, having reached critical mass, offers "information at your fingertips."
Gates was quite convincing that "pages and links," like the HTML documents you see with your Web browser, are fast becoming the central GUI paradigm. Look for Microsoft's Active Desktop, which should be available within a year, to forever ch ange the way you access your programs and data as the Mac-copycat "look and feel" of Windows gives way to the Web page metaphor.
JavaSoft's Baratz, meanwhile, made a good case that Java (or at least languages like it) will change the software industry -- how programs are developed, marketed, distributed, and sold. By breaking the lock between applications and a specific operati ng system, Java transforms the Internet into a connected and growing application platform that offers a common data format and standard protocols (interusability).
What with Java Beans and Java OS, and the forthcoming Visual J++, Java is definitely making its mark in the world of programming.
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About Wm.
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