I love Real World for many reasons. It’s like a high school reunion except that you actually like (mostly) and get along with all your old classmates. Everyone is there at Real World to talk about Real Studio and praise it (and bitch about it). There were plenty of things to talk about this year.
The good news/bad news is that the 2012 Release 1 will come out later than what anyone expected and will still have the old IDE user interface. But it turns out that this is good news in that R1 will contain a ton of bug fixes and minor to medium changes that will help everyone. Release 2 will then have the new IDE. Personally, I feel that my post from several months ago was pretty much spot on though in no way do I feel that my post had any influence on their decision. I guess I can say, with very minor satisfaction, “Told you so.”
Web Edition is maturing nicely with news of an upcoming WebCanvas control that works pretty much like the desktop canvas control. The 1-click installation on Real Software web hosting is interesting and I think I will try to move my web apps to their service so I can go back to regular shared hosting for my website. Take what’s simple and put it on a simple server and take what’s complex and put it on the complex server. It will make my life easier in the long run I think.
Cocoa is turning out to be a tough nut to crack. Apple is doing things MUCH differently in Cocoa than in Carbon in a few areas and it seems that it’s hard to figure that out until you actually do the work. Any framework is big and the deal with Real Software is that they’re trying hard to make it transparent to us. But, the move to Cocoa, while very difficult, is an absolute must because Apple is slowly killing Carbon, it’s the only way to get 64 bit support and, it’s the only way to get iOS apps built in the long run.
iOS applications could be huge for Real Software. Assuming they get it to work like we all need it to and it’s ‘just like’ an xCode app only written using Real Studio then they will have an unbelievably huge hit on their hands. I can’t tell you how many clients ask me about leveraging their Real Studio code in an iOS app. Currently that’s not possible. A year from now? I don’t know but I’ll be eager to test it even in the alpha stage.
Bottom line is that even though the company has taken a very long time to get the next version out the door I believe that this delay has been put to good use. They’ve found stuff in the frameworks that they’ve been able to fix before it ever gets to us. This is a good thing. The delay is painful (and possibly executed poorly especially considering the talk on Agile software development) but we, and they, will be better off for it.
One can certainly argue the effectiveness of trying to code both the Cocoa framework changes AND a new IDE interface all at the same time but the fact is that they have made the Cocoa framework better by trying to do both at the same time. By using the framework closer to how WE’LL be using it they’ve identified and squashed many more areas of concern. The new IDE is a lot of change and some will hate it and some will love it and most of us will be in the middle. I won’t know until I can spend 8 to 10 hours a day on it for a couple of weeks. Based on what I saw at the conference that’s not possible now so the delay in getting the new IDE out is another good reason to push it of a release.
This is the first year where I’ve had multiple prospective clients talk to me about work. If I manage to get all of the work I’d probably have to double my developer staff. That’s a good problem to have! I even had one client show up to the conference specifically to talk to me and my developers.
I though the location was okay and it was certainly better than Austin (nothing against Austin, just been there 5 or 6 times now). I didn’t bring my family because we’ve been to both Disney World and Disneyland so Orlando had no attraction for me. If they were to hold Real World again next year I’d recommend Las Vegas, San Diego or Seattle. While some people might have enjoyed having it at the forefront of the big Memorial Day holiday weekend I didn’t as I felt like I lost the first part of it traveling home. To each their own and I’d love to see more feedback on it.
I want to thank everyone for introducing themselves. I had a lot of compliments about this blog and the magazine column and that really gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling. I certainly don’t do it for the money and there are plenty of times where I feel like I’m talking to myself. So at least I know I’m not totally crazy. 🙂
What was your takeaway from the conference? Do you want me to dig deeper into any topics I’ve been posting about?