Nebula/nebula.bin/Documents/Others/SunLetter.txt

Internet Message Format | 1992-06-01 | 34KB

Path: dakota!portal!uunet!xrxedds!ihost!next32!dstrout
From: [e-mail] (Dave Strout)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.misc
Subject: Steve answers Sun abuse
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 20 Apr 92 20:19:45 GMT
Sender: [e-mail] (Dave Strout)
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Organization: is a sign of a sick mind...
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This just came across my desk, thought I'd pass it on.  I don't remember
seeing it on the net before.  If it was, I appologize for the wasted
bandwidth in advance.  It's actually two seperate pieces, posted here as
one.

dave.

<-------Cut Here---------->

After a huge amount of work, the SunWorld Expo team pulled off a
tremendous feat on the floor of SunWorld,  while appearing calm
and collected in a crowded booth in the heart of enemy territory.

We more than accomplished our original goal: to make the Sun customer
think of NeXT when they think of Sun.  We had the second-largest
booth (Sun had the largest), and we were the most crowded booth on
the SunWorld floor.  Customers couldn't help but notice us, from
the leaflet that was shrink-wrapped into every copy of SunWorld
magazine distributed at the show, to the 16-monitor video wall
advertisement in the entrance, to the brochures distributed to
hotel rooms, we certainly made a splash at SunWorld.

Visitors to our booth were first greeted by a huge sign that read:
"Environmental Study shows Damaging Effect of SUN."  The constant
stream of presentations given in the "theatre" at the back of the
booth drew huge crowds, and spoke directly to those customers who
were unsure about venturing into the booth for a one-on-one demo.
Several people remarked that this was a big win.  Special thanks
go to Eric Bergerson from Objective Technologies and Diane Webb
from ESL for giving the NeXT customer perspective.  Eric did a
tireless job of presenting and demoing all day, each day.  Diane
gave a great comparison of writing and deploying the same application
on the Sun and the NeXT.  It was great to hear war stories of trying
to get office workers to use OpenWindows vs NeXTSTEP.  We taught
these Sun customers more than they ever wanted to know about the
advantages of programming a NeXT, and using a NeXT.

We also made our point with the 16-monitor Video Wall in the entrance
foyer.  On the last day, show management informed me that they were
removing our video from the wall.  They felt thet "it was not in
good taste for a Sun show" that it was "too much of a Sun-bash."
We are getting money back on this (I was appropriately indignant),
but it was nice to see that we got to Sun enough that they put
pressure on World Expo Corp to yank it (maybe we'll get some press
on this?).  In response, we put up a sign that said, "Get a free
copy of the Video the Show Management won't even allow you to see"
and promptly gave away 500 Videos practically all on that last day.

NeXT machines also showed in 3 booths on the SunWorld floor: Hitachi,
Auspex and DaDISP.  Two of these were deals made on the show floor
during setup.  Hitachi wanted to hook up their CD-ROM player, so
we gave them a 3.0 machine, turned it on, and it just worked.  It
was gratifying to hear the lead guy from Hitachi sing the praises
of NeXT on the end of the first day: "It's my job to track the
system vendors, and I have to say that you have the slickest stuff
I've ever seen."  Meanwhile, the SPARC that was in the Hitachi
Booth was on the fritz, the SPARC could show a static image (they
hid the keyboard and mouse), while the NeXT had all sorts of Demos
on it.



---------------------------------------------------------------------

March 24, 1992


Dear Customer,

Sun recently circulated a "slander sheet" to its sales force,
attacking NeXT on both professional and personal fronts. By all
indications, this document originates from the top levels of Sun,
and outlines Sun's case against NeXT.

In this document Sun has fabricated many inaccurate claims about
NeXT, our technology and our investors.  The first page attacks me
personally three times.  This kind of unprofessional attack demands
a clear response.

Attached, please find our response to Sun's attack, and also a copy
of Sun's original "slander sheet", so that you can personally see
how desperate Sun has become in its fight against NeXT.

We welcome any technology challenge from Sun.  I will personally
debate Scott McNealey on the merits of our respective products and
services -- anytime, anywhere.  But this kind of unprofessional
"bullying" from Sun must stop.


Sincerely,

Steven P. Jobs
Chairman and CEO
NeXT Computer, Inc.

------------------------------------------------------------

Sun Declares War on NeXT

Let's examine each of Sun's claims about NeXT in the order and
exactly as they appeared in Sun's recent, inflammatory document.

NeXT: The Company

Sun's Claim: What are its long-term prospect [sic]?  A company
which is over 3 years old and thought by analysts to be making a
last stand

The Facts: NeXT sales grew more than 300% in 1991, to $127 million
during a very tough year for the computer industry and the global
economy.  A February 7, 1992 IDC report on 1991 Worldwide
Workstation/Workstation Server Market: The Year in Review offered
these comments about NeXT: "Although the total market grew only
14% in dollars and 22% in units, several of the top eight vendors
gained market share in 1991.  Showing significant growth were NeXT,
IBM, Silicon Graphics and Sun, in that order."  This report goes
on to say that "Both IBM and NeXT grew at over 50%, and became
numbers four and five, respectively, in market share."  IDC estimates
that IBM outsold NeXT by a mere 250 workstations in 1991.

Just as important as the financial results, however, are the reasons
fueling them: that the NeXT platform offers the best environment
for developing mission-critical custom applications; that these
applications run seamlessly alongside high-quality productivity
applications; and that NeXT is the first platform to make the power
of Unix workstations available to anyone in an organization from
novice computer users through expert developers.  On every measurable
level, NeXT's "long-term prospects" look rosy.

Sun's Claim: Do you really want to put your future in Steve Jobs' hands?

The Facts: NeXT is a company of approximately 600 people, with
world-class talent in software and hardware engineering, manufacturing,
sales and marketing, and operations.  When customers purchase NeXT
products, they reap the benefits of this combined talent.  As
founder and CEO of NeXT, as well as one of the computer industry's
most highly acclaimed pioneers, Steve Jobs is a great company
leader, whose leadership and vision provides direct benefits to
NeXT customers.  Why does Sun feel compelled to attack Steve Jobs
on a personal level?

Sun's Claim:  What's this we hear about layoffs and Steve Jobs using
his own money to meet last months [sic] payroll?

The Facts: NeXT laid off thirty-five employees (only 5% of NeXT's
workforce) in 1991.  This, like layoffs at other companies such as
DEC and Apple, reflects the effects of the recession on the computer
industry during 1991.  Our business is currently strong, and we
foresee no further layoffs at NeXT.  At the beginning of 1990, NeXT
had 350 employees.  During the past two years, NeXT has grown more
than 50%, today employing nearly 600 people.

Steve Jobs used none of his own money to meet last month's payroll.
NeXT enjoys strong funding from Jobs, Ross Perot, and Canon -- whose
combined net worth exceeds $15 billion -- as well as revenues from
our strong and growing sales.  Suffice it to say that NeXT's finances
are very strong.



Sun's Claim: Why did Ross Perot really resign from the Board?

The Facts: Ross Perot resigned from NeXT's Board of Directors so
he could devote his full attention to his new company, Perot Systems.
Ross still owns as many shares of his NeXT stock as ever (11.3%),
and has no intention of selling them.  He is a trusted and close
advisor to NeXT as well as a personal friend of Steve Jobs; the
two talk weekly.

Sun's Claim: Why is Canon looking for a buyer for its share?

The Facts: This is totally untrue.  Canon, a company having $20
billion in annual sales, actually increased its NeXT ownership
during 1991 to almost 18% of NeXT.  In January, Canon's president,
Dr. Keizo Yamaji, travelled to San Francisco to address 3,500 people
at the first NeXTWORLD EXPO.  In his talk, Dr. Yamaji said, "We
are committed to NeXT as a cornerstone in our computer strategy,"
and he reiterated his own personal pride at being able to contribute
to NeXT's success.

Sun's Claim: Why has Steve Jobs' primary market focus shifted from
academics and scientists to investment bankers?

The Facts: NeXT's market focus has expanded, not shifted.  Four
years ago, NeXT began by marketing its computers to higher education
in North America, a strategy proven by DEC in the 1970s and Apple
in the 1980s as a smart way to build a new computer company.  NeXT
has become one of the top workstations sold on college campuses in
America and the number two computer of any kind (second only to
the Macintosh) sold at leading universities such as Stanford and
MIT.  Higher education remains a healthy 20% of our total business,
and we are committed to continuing success in this market.

We expanded into the commercial and government markets -- including
financial services, government and healthcare -- during 1991, and
have seen tremendous success.  Approximately 80% of our 1991 revenues
came from these markets.

As the first UNIX workstation designed to be used by mere mortals,
NeXT has helped expand the workstation market by helping to define
a new class of computers: professional workstations, which is being
heralded as the most important workstation market of the 1990s.
Our market focus will continue to expand into all areas where
professional workstations solve real customer needs.

NeXT: The Hardware

Sun's Claim: Motorola / CiSC architecture? You must be kidding ...
The "Turbo" version announced last week compares to our entry-line
Sparc IPC as far as SPECmarks rating goes and does not break any
price performance point.

The Facts: This claim is not only false, it misses the points that
are important to customers.  Price/performance can be measured as
dollars/MIPS and dollars/SPECmarks; let's look at some real
comparisons:

      SPEC- $/SPEC-
Model   RAM DISK Price MIPS $/MIPS marks

marks

NeXTstation Turbo 16MB 250MB $ 6,995 25 $280 16.3

$429
Sparcstation IPX 16MB 207MB $11,995 28.5 $421 24.4

$492

NeXTstation Color Turbo 32MB 424MB $13,495 25 $540 16.3

$828
Sparcstation 2  32MB 424MB $20,495 28.5 $721 24.4

$840

As you can see, our new NeXTstation Turbo systems beat comparable
Sun machines by a generous factor in $/MIPS.  Yes, Sun's machines
do offer the user 3.5 extra MIPS (which the user will never even
notice), but at significant additional cost.

But everyone knows that performance goes far beyond MIPS or SPECmarks
or any other CPU speed measurement.  The real measure of performance
is, "can I use this computer to do what I need to do as fast as
I'd like to do it?"  NeXT's professional workstation customers are
the best ones to judge this.  We urge you to talk to some of them.
Also, how many MIPS is a Sun computer running while customers wait
two years for an application to be completed using Sun's tools?

In addition to offering more performance per dollar, NeXT computers
offer far better total value.  Sun's UI layout tool, DevGuide, and
a C compiler cost thousands of dollars extra.  NeXT bundles
Objective-C, C, C++, Interface Builder, and the Application Kit
(an application framework) at no extra charge with every computer
sold; NeXTSTEP 3.0 also includes the NeXT Database Kit (for database
access), Pixar's RenderMan (for 3D rendering), and built-in Novell
and Appletalk client services.

But don't take our word for it.  Sun's own magazine, SunWorld
reviewed four Sun workstations in January 1992 and the NeXTstation
Color Turbo in March.  SunWorld ranked overall value (price,
performance, ease of use, behavior, features) on a 1 to 8 scale
(larger is better).  The Sun community's own publication ranked
the NeXTstation Turbo higher than any Sun workstation!

NeXTstation Turbo 7.3 (List prices: $5995, $8995)
SPARCstation 2  7.1 (List prices: $15495, $49995, and
others)
SPARCstation IPX 6.6 (List prices: $11995, $15495)
SPARCstation ELC 6.1 (List prices: $4995, $6295)
SPARCstation IPC 5.8 (List prices: $7995, $9995)

Sun's Claim: Which RISC strategy?  To be delivered when, knowing
that source code compatibility will require a complete port of the
OS, Mach, which is said to have fairly intimate dependencies on
the current underlying hardware?

The Facts: Mach reduces dependencies and makes porting the OS and
applications very easy compared to older Unix architectures, such
as Sun's.  Today, NeXTSTEP runs on multiple platforms, including
the Motorola 68040 family, the Intel 486 family, the Intel i860
family and other RISC processors1all radically different platforms.
NeXT will announce its RISC plans during the next year.  And the
fact that most developers have ported their applications from
NeXTSTEP on the 68040 to NeXTSTEP 486 in less than a day demonstrates
how portable the NeXTSTEP environment really is.

Sun's Claim: SPARC do [sic] deliver today performance and scaleabilty
[sic] from the desktop to the high-end server.  Future geneneration
[sic] of chips are [sic] already available.

The Facts: Sun is widely acknowledged (see First Boston's 12/91
report on Sun, for example) as having lost technical and
price/performance leadership in RISC technology to IBM, HP, DEC
and MIPS; Sun has "fallen behind the price/performance curve."
(First Boston's cover quote.)

Sun's Claim: SPARC International is by far the leading force in
the Risc workstation market; 74% of market share in 1990, according
to Alex Brown & Sons.  Sun alone shipped a record of 49,000 SPARC
units in last fiscal year.  According to IDC, Sun's 1991 RISC
workstation unit market share is 53.9% and a Wall Street Computer
Review estimation gave Sun last year over 80% of the Unix market
share in the Wall Street community.

The Facts: Sun lost RISC market share last year. (See IDC's February
7, 1992 workstation market report.)

As regards Wall Street, many publications report NeXT's growing
market share (See, among others,  Wall Street & Technology, March
1992, Global Investment Technology, March 9, 1992, Wall Street
Computer Review, October, 1991, Trading Systems Technology Newsletter,
May 20, 1991, August 12, 1991, September 23, 1991, February 10,
1992, March 23, 1992; Investment Management Technology Newsletter,
January 24 1992, and Unix Today, October 14, 1991.).

"Global Investment Technology's" March 9, 1992 cover story says it
all:  "NeXT Development ToolKit Spurs Software Boom in Capital
Markets." In competitive "bakeoffs" at leading firms, NeXT consistently
beats Sun.

NeXT: The OS

Sun's Claim: Mach: a research OS

The Facts: Is this meant as a criticism?  Mach was developed at
Carnegie Mellon University as a federally funded effort to create
a high-performance operating system combining the virtues of Unix
with a more efficient architecture.  Mach has been successfully
commercialized, first by NeXT and more recently by most Open Software
Foundation (OSF)-member workstation companies, including HP and
DEC.  Sun remains one of the few vendors retaining the older AT&T
System V architecture in preference to the more efficient, portable
and now standard Mach architecture.

Sun's Claim: What will be the general market acceptance for an OS
which does not support major industry standards, like POSIX, mandated
by the US Government on all Federal system buys, and adopted by
both OSF and Unix International?

The Facts: We agree that operating systems must commit to POSIX to
succeed in the federal marketplace; NeXTSTEP will be fully
POSIX-compliant in 1992.  The addition of POSIX compliance illustrates
NeXT's broader philosophy toward standards: namely, to adopt all
standards that offer tangible customer benefits. Among our government
customers, POSIX clearly meets this criterion.







Sun's Claim: Why go Unix Berkeley when the whole industry is going
System

V?

The Facts: Debates about flavors of UNIX are irrelevant to most
users, as long as fundamental standards such as TCP/IP and POSIX
are implemented.

The whole industry has not standardized on Sun's Unix.  OSF was
formed to offer an alternative to Sun-hardly a sign of any mass
migration to Sun software technology. In any case, who cares?  By
focusing on variants of Unix, Sun is looking through the rearview
mirror, not the windshield.  At NeXT, we care about the underlying
functionality available to users, not religious wars about UNIX
flavors.  Our commitment to the future has put us years ahead of
our competitors, including Sun, in the important area of object-oriented
systems.

Sun's Claim: Solaris/SunOS: has withstood the test of Time

The Facts: The test of an architecture is not its age, but how well
it adapts to the future.  We agree that Sun's UNIX architecture is
an old one.  So is MS-DOS.  But no one suggests either one represents
the future of computing.  Not being object-oriented, Sun's architecture
has shown itself to be less capable of integrating new technologies.

Sun's Claim: Solaris 2.0 unites 80% of ten million UNIX users.

The Facts: Solaris 2.0 isn't even shipping yet!  Sun couldn't
possibly unite 8 million users, since Sun shipped fewer than 190,000
computers of all kinds last year, and has probably shipped only
about 500,000 workstations in all of its history.  Even if there
are ten million UNIX users (a very optimistic estimate), SunOS/Solaris
'unites' only a tiny 2% to 4% of them.

Sun's Claim: Solaris 2.0 is the SVR4 "source platform:

The Facts: So what? What are the benefits to users?  Do they even
know or care what this means?

NeXT: NeXTstep

What does SunWorld magazine think of NeXTSTEP?  "Brilliant.  The
easiest Unix system on the market." (March 1992, p. 52).

Sun's Claim: Intimately tied to the kernel, therefore fast but not
easily portable away from the OS

The Facts: This is simply not true.  Mach insulates NeXTSTEP from
hardware dependencies.  NeXTSTEP is very portable, as shown by the
recent announcement of NeXTSTEP 486 and the large number of
implementations running in our labs.  Mach is very, very fast, as
Sun admits, which is particularly important for an object-oriented
system such as NeXTSTEP, which depends on fast interprocess messaging.

Sun's Claim: Is the Dos User willing to spend training time on a
new proprietary Lotus, Frame or Wordperfect interface?

The Facts: NeXTSTEP applications, being consistent, require little
training time.  Unlike Open Windows applications, NeXTSTEP apps
use a core set of common objects, making them inherently consistent.
DOS applications available for Sun computers often have no modern
graphical user interface at all and are merely lowest-common-denominator
ports of old DOS apps.  Sun's first version of Lotus 1-2-3 didn't
even support a mouse!  Studies such as the one recently completed
by Booz.Allen & Hamilton indicate that users far prefer NeXTSTEP
applications to either native DOS programs or those few business
applications available for Open Windows.  (Sun's recent advertising
claims that there are sixty such applications.  Three hundred
NeXTSTEP business productivity applications are shipping today.)

NeXT doesn't mandate that a user give up DOS applications.  If
users want to run DOS apps within the NeXTSTEP environment, they
can do so easily, using Insignia Solutions' SoftPC PC emulator.
Even without SoftPC, all NeXT computers read and write DOS-formatted
diskettes, so users can make a simple transition from DOS apps to
vastly better NeXTSTEP apps.

Some users may want to hang onto the character interface of early
1980s; we find that more prefer to easily learned, consistent and
integrated applications.  Actually, this is the first time we've
heard that NeXT's superior ease of use was a reason not to buy our
computers!

Sun's Claim: Unix today without X?  NeXTstep provides nothing beyond
a limited third-party support: neither tools, toolkits, GUI's nor
server extensions. All the fancy NeXTstep applications do not run
on X.

The Facts: Those users who need to run X applications alongside
their 'fancy' NeXTSTEP applications have three excellent X/Motif
implementations running under NeXTSTEP today, all of which can
utilize X applications, development tools, and toolkits.  Full
cut-and-paste allow NeXTSTEP and X apps to coexist.

Sun is absolutely right that "fancy NeXTSTEP applications do not
run on X."  They wouldn't be powerful applications if they did,
since they would lack NeXTSTEP's object-oriented advantages: overall
consistency (including user interfaces, dialogs, multimedia support),
true extensibility, a unified imaging model (i.e., same imaging
language, PostScript, to the screen and to printed output), and
ease of use.

SunWorld's Dave Taylor (March 1992) makes the same point: "It has
been difficult . . . to endure the slings and arrows of Open Windows
.. . . . The best analogy I can think of is that Unix remains a
bunch of bricks without any mortar at all.  It's a nice wall, but
it sure doesn't make a good building to live within. NeXTstep offers
the mortar that's missing in the X/Open Windows and X/Motif
environments.  Using the NeXT computer offers a computing experience
-- a seamless computer experience -- that shames other advanced
systems." (p. 53).

Or, as SunWorld says elsewhere in the issue: NeXTSTEP has "almost
the perfect interface.  Consistent interface style across applications,
a common underlying object-oriented OS, an astounding set of
capabilities." (p. 52)  "The smooth feel of the interface is light
years ahead of anything else available for a Unix user, not just
in GUIs like Motif and Open Windows, but even with the additional
capabilities of Looking Glass, X Desktop, or others." (p. 52)

SunWorld's overall assessment of NeXTSTEP's interface: "We have
seen the future of [the] Unix interface.  Too bad it's not on our
Sun." (March 1992, p. 43)

Sun's Claim: What about those myriad X applications available now and

later?

The Facts: What about them?  Any X application available now or
later can run using any of the X implementations available for
NeXTSTEP.

And what about the relative quality of Sun's X-dependent applications?
SunWorld (March 1992) concluded that NeXTSTEP applications are
"typically better versions than their non-NeXT peers.  For example,
the version of Adobe Illustrator for NeXT is more powerful than
that on the Macintosh.  FrameMaker is similarly easier to use and
understand, being able to use the NeXTstep interface to maximum
advantage.  A further advantage of NeXTstep is that different
applications can easily interact, sharing graphics, text, and other
elements via the simple and pervasive drag-and-drop feature.  Quite
a bit more sophisticated than Open Windows, for example." (p. 54).

Sun's Claim: NeXTstep provides a very limited drag-and-drop capability.

The Facts: This is nonsense.  I suggest that Sun's marketing
department visit SunWorld magazine.  According to the March issue
of SunWorld, NeXTSTEP has "a well thought-out drag-and-drop
implementation.  For example, if you've received a multimedia
message from someone, you can easily click on a graphic and drag
it, as a TIFF object, into another document, without any further
action."  And every NeXTSTEP application works this way.

Sun's Claim: With the exception of NeXTmail, NeXT does not provide
tools like calendar manager, tasks manager, spreadsheets, [sic]
that enable group activity over the network.

The Facts: False, again.  NeXT's third-party software developers
provide exactly these tools.  Adamation's group calendaring and
scheduling tool, Whose Calling; Adamation's networked 'blackboard'
tool, Live Wire; the group information manager, On Duty from DIT;
Sarrus' Pencil Me In group scheduler; the Boss Logic Document
Management System; the Boss Logic Workflow Management System; Visus
Papersight; and Insight's Electrofile are among the many products
listed in the 250-page NeXT Software and Peripherals Catalog.

NeXTSTEP 3.0's Distributed Objects and Object Linking tools expand
the ability of developers to create the industry's most advanced
workgroup and workflow applications.  And unlike Sun applications,
NeXTSTEP applications, in true object-oriented fashion, do not need
to be designed together to work together.

Sun's Claim: NeXT provides overall a very minimal interconnectivity
to the heterogeneous network.  There is no IBM/DEC connectivity
offer [sic] and limited or inexisting [sic] front-ends to both
world. [sic]

The Facts: NeXT, itself, in version 3.0 of NeXTSTEP provides
connectivity to servers (Sun, Teradata, Pyramid among many others),
database connectivity (Sybase and Oracle, among others), terminal
emulation, connectivity to Appletalk and Novell networks and
connectivity to heterogeneous UNIX networks via NFS as standard
'out of the box' capabilities.  A number of third parties (e.g.,
Avatar, Conextions and Active Ingredients) provide tools connecting
NeXT to IBM and DEC mainframes.

NeXT: The Interface Builder

Sun's Claim: The whole industry is going Object Oriented Environment
and setting up the standards.  Who wants to go Steve Jobs' way?

The Facts: The industry has definitely endorsed object-oriented
system software.  We happen to have a six-year head start, and will
ship our third-generation object-oriented system software within
the next few months.  After six years of development, NeXTSTEP
remains the only true object-oriented system software on the market.

Given that, why should customers wait five years for Sun to develop
its first generation of real, extensible and integrated object-oriented
systems software of unknown quality when NeXT is shipping its third
generation of proven, award-winning software on multiple processor
families this year?

Among those who have recognized the superiority of NeXT's
object-oriented system software are the Software Publishing
Association, which gave NeXTSTEP the Fluegelman Award for innovative
software, and Computer Language magazine, which awarded NeXTSTEP
its Productivity Award for interactive application development
environments.  The industry has recognized the superiority of
NeXTSTEP for the same reasons that Sun customers such as SBC/OC
have switched from SunOS/Solaris to NeXTSTEP.

Sun's Claim: C++ is the widely accepted language standard.  Why is
IB strongest with Objective C, an esoteric OO language with no
industry support?

The Facts: NeXTSTEP programmers can use a combination of standard
ANSI C, Objective-C, or C++. The core code for Lotus Improv, for
example, was written in C++.

Why do we offer strongest support for Objective-C?  Far from being
an esoteric language, Objective-C is based on standard ANSI C and
offers such essential object-oriented facilities like dynamic
binding, which C++ lacks.  (Dynamic binding allows objects to be
bound to an application at run-rime, rather than compile-time,
which allows applications to be updated and modified "on the fly.")
And unlike C++, there is no steep learning curve for the programmer
graduating from C to Objective-C.  Microsoft's Bill Gates has said
it best: "Not only is C++ difficult to learn, but the sophistication
and high level of abstraction of C++ code make it even more difficult
to design, debug, read and navigate than C code . . . The complexity
of C++ has led many development teams to use only a subset of C++,
often referred to as 'C-plus-plus-minus-minus.'"  Object Magazine,
March/April 1992, pp. 14-15.  Unlike C++, Objective-C adds only a
few simple extensions to Standard ANSI C.

In any case, this discussion trivializes object-oriented development,
since a programming language is only a small part of an overall
object-oriented software environment.  Object management tools such
as Interface Builder, a rich suite of objects such as NeXTSTEP's
Application Kit, and a fundamental messaging architecture (provided
by Mach) are all equally important.  Our industry's future lies in
complete object-oriented environments, of which NeXTSTEP is the
only currently shipping example.

Sun's Claim: Is ODI, the Objects "store" for NeXTstep, going out of

business?

The Facts: 100% of the NeXTSTEP development environment is built
and maintained in-house.  Unlike Sun, which must rely on third
parties to provide the basic components for its development
environment, NeXTSTEP is an integrated environment developed by
NeXT.  NeXT uses no products from any company called ODI.

Sun's Claim: How many services are available from NeXT?  What does
it take a developper[sic] to write its own services, as they become
required by the application to be delivered?

The Facts: There are many services available today, and almost
every developer has added new services with each shipping application.
"Services" is one of the most innovative features of NeXTSTEP.
Every application, without modification, can use the services of
other applications.  Today, for example, out of the box, any
application can mail all or part of a document to other users, can
access Webster's Dictionary for spell checking, and can look up
information in the Digital Librarian.  Services provided by
third-party applications are as varied as SQL database access,
graphics archiving and optical character recognition.  It takes a
trivial effort -- a few lines of code -- for one application to offer
services to all other NeXTSTEP applications.

Sun's Claim: Beyond the ability to put a great demo together, what
is the real training cost involved to get a developper [sic] up to
speed on the Next environment?

The Facts: NeXTSTEP not only allows you to develop your applications
three to ten times faster than on Sun platforms (according to a
study by Booz.Allen & Hamilton), it is the easiest-to-learn
development environment.  Typically, it takes C programmers only
five days to learn NeXTSTEP, when they attend NeXT's Developer
Camp.  Here is what some NeXT customer have said about developing
with NeXTSTEP:

"NeXT is really making a splash in launching SBC's [Swiss Bank
Corporation] business in interest rate derivatives. . . . Solo's
team wrote the application in three months, which is half the time
it would have taken on a Sun workstation," he says.  "I've never
developed something so substantive in so little time." - Wall Street
Computer Review, Volume 9, No. 1 (1991), p. 46.

"A group of 20 derivatives product traders began testing the
applications six weeks after Phibro signed its business contract
with Steven Jobs of NeXT Computer, Inc." - Wall Street & Technology,
March 1992, p. 65.

"The strongest selling point for us is the NeXTstep development
environment. It allows us to develop applications in roughly
one-third the time.  On a NeXT, you are encouraged, coddled, and
brought quickly up what would otherwise be a difficult learning
curve in making good use of OOP technique.  This is possible because
object-orientation isn't just a veneer on the programming environment.
The heart and soul of the NeXT is object-oriented.  This allowed
our developers to become OOP experts with relatively little pain.
The benefits are monumental.  It is inconceivable to me that we
would ever go back to the days of functional programming." - Hadar
Pedhazur, Vice President, Equities Technology, Equity Derivative
Products, UBS Securities, Inc., quoted in July 17, 1991 Open Systems
Advisor.

NeXT's Developer Camp, a five-day course in NeXTSTEP object-oriented
development, has already trained thousands of commercial and
corporate programmers.

Sun's Claim: NeXT is oriented around a single developper [sic]
building an application.  Where are the tools for allowing multiple
developers to coordinate their development efforts?  How will the
prototype scale to large applications implying multiple developers?

The Facts: By modularizing code into reusable objects, programmers
need only know the interface -- the messages -- that objects understand.
This approach allows programmers to break big problems up among a
team.  In contrast to Sun's inferences in the above question,
object-oriented systems are ideal for collaborative development
among programming teams.  NeXTSTEP projects in government, corporate
sites, and professional software development companies (including
Lotus and WordPerfect) usually do involve programming teams, some
quite large.





--

Dave Strout
NeXT Programmer
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