Jeff Eisen The Road to Hannover http://www.jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/ en-us Fri, 17 Aug 2007 15:04:38 -0400 Shipped a product -- I’m heading to Disney World Fri, 17 Aug 2007 15:04:38 -0400 http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/shipped-a-product----im-heading-to-disney-world Jeff Eisen http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/shipped-a-product----im-heading-to-disney-world?opendocument&comments http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/shipped-a-product----im-heading-to-disney-world
To our customers, partners, etc. -- It was built with your input and guidance and the product is better for it.  

There are parts of the product that I think turned out great (such as the embedded Sametime) and parts that still need some work (navigation models).   Of course, more releases to come so you will continue to see improvements in existing functionality as well as cool and valuable new functionality over time.  A lot of pretty interesting stuff already being discussed for Lotusphere 2008.  You won't want to miss it.

There are also parts I really don't like.   Perhaps my least favorite "improvement" in Notes 8 is to switch to the Windows selection model.  Yes, it is a standard, but no, I find it annoying and I don't find it as productive for my model of working through the inbox as the original "Notes" selection model.    So, we are heading to bring back the Notes model as a preference.   Work in the old way; work in the standard way; take your pick.  Over time, I'd like a hybrid approach with the best of both worlds, but we're not there yet.

Overall, IMHO, Notes 8 turned out amazingly well.   It will make it more enyoyable and productive for you to use and will give you much better ammunition within your organization to win the Lotus Notes battles.

I also agree with Ed Brill's statement in his blog today where he says about the decision to move Notes onto Eclipse:  "This single decision about the Notes 8 architecture is more important for that long-term than anything else being delivered in Notes 8."    

Eclipse really opens up a new world of easy to build and powerful applications welcoming a new development community while giving new power to the existing development community  The demos I've seen lately (some of which you'll see at Lotusphere) are really quite impressive and make me quite confident that Eclipse was a wise choice.

While it is an exciting time at Lotus, it is no time to rest on our laurels.  On a customer call this morning, I got the "Congratulations on 8.0 -- when's 8.0.1?" question...

The team is working hard to get to 8.0.1 and beyond.

I, for one, though, am taking a quick break.   Notes 8 is finally in the customers' hands and I'm taking a short vacation, my first this year.  I'm heading to Disney World -- really. ]]> http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dxcomments/shipped-a-product----im-heading-to-disney-world http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/shipped-a-product----im-heading-to-disney-world?opendocument&comments developerWorks podcast on Notes with yours truly Wed, 23 May 2007 13:26:44 -0400 http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/developerworks-podcast-on-notes-with-yours-truly Jeff Eisen http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/developerworks-podcast-on-notes-with-yours-truly?opendocument&comments http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/developerworks-podcast-on-notes-with-yours-truly
Mary Beth Raven, Jan Kenney, and I were the interviewees.

Enjoy.

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/podcast/dwi/cm-int052207.html ]]> http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dxcomments/developerworks-podcast-on-notes-with-yours-truly http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/developerworks-podcast-on-notes-with-yours-truly?opendocument&comments Tip of the Day -- Controlling startup window tabs Sat, 10 Mar 2007 09:10:39 -0400 http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/tip-of-the-day----controlling-startup-window-tabs Jeff Eisen http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/tip-of-the-day----controlling-startup-window-tabs?opendocument&comments http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/tip-of-the-day----controlling-startup-window-tabs
In Notes 8, we've automatically added Mail, Calendar, and Contacts applications to your startup folder.

Image:Tip of the Day -- Controlling startup window tabs

You are welcome to add more or remove some or all of these by clicking right on the entries in the "Startup" folder and doing a "Remove".

You can also control whether Notes remembers to re-open window tabs that were there when you shutdown.   Some people love it enabled (they like to get right back to where they were) and some people hate it (they like starting with a clean slate).   That control is in the preferences menu under File/Preferences.   As long as I'm on this screenshot, notice the settings around window management to control how window tabs open in Notes 8.  Try the choices and see what you like.

Image:Tip of the Day -- Controlling startup window tabs ]]> http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dxcomments/tip-of-the-day----controlling-startup-window-tabs http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/tip-of-the-day----controlling-startup-window-tabs?opendocument&comments Gentlemen (and ladies), start your engines! Fri, 9 Mar 2007 22:35:00 -0400 http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/gentlemen-and-ladies-start-your-engines Jeff Eisen http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/gentlemen-and-ladies-start-your-engines?opendocument&comments http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/gentlemen-and-ladies-start-your-engines
Lotus Notes 8.0 is an innovative new release aimed to make you more productive, both individually and collectively.  It brings you a dramatically improved user interface, new functionality such as a search center, feed reader, and open standards based productivity editors (word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation editor), as well as powerful new application models.   Of course, there's much more, but why don't you check it out for yourself?

You can get started with the first public beta of Lotus Notes 8 here.

You can read and provide feedback at the Notes/Domino 8 Public Beta Forum.

I'll also be using this bully pulpit to discuss, provide an avenue for some feedback, and provide tips of the day for the beta.

Some simple ground rules though:

  • Accolades -- appreciated
  • Criticism --  welcome
  • Pot shots -- discouraged and potentially removed


Might as well get started with the first meta-tip of the day.

One of the new features in Lotus Notes 8 is an RSS/Atom feed reader that allows you, among other things, to easily keep up with blogs.  The feed reader in the beta provides one click access to several of the Notes/Domino blogs.

So, open the feed reader in the "side bar," click on the "Tune in" button that I have circled in the picture below

Image:Gentlemen (and ladies), start your engines!

and easily add some blogs

Image:Gentlemen (and ladies), start your engines!

After that, you can keep up on these tips of the day by just going to the "Notes 8: The Road to Hannover" entry in your feed reader.  Also, notice when you go to the Notes/Domino 8 Public Beta Forum that there are RSS links to add the forum content to your feed reader too.

Enjoy! ]]> http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dxcomments/gentlemen-and-ladies-start-your-engines http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/gentlemen-and-ladies-start-your-engines?opendocument&comments The power of negative suggestion Tue, 6 Feb 2007 20:56:19 -0400 http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/the-power-of-negative-suggestion Jeff Eisen http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/the-power-of-negative-suggestion?opendocument&comments http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/the-power-of-negative-suggestion
He shall remain nameless (unless he wants to identify himself), but his comments in as direct a quote as I can remember were: "It's not that I don't like the feed reader in Hannover, it's that I hate it".    His beef was although it works nicely to read the web pages for the feeds when you are on-line, there was no decent off-line story.    That is, you could not read the summaries of each feed entry when off-line.   Not too cool in the Notes universe.

Well, the power of negative suggestion sometimes accomplishes things.   A statement like "It's not that I don't like X, it's that I hate it" reverberates somewhat.

So, here's a screenshot, fresh from this morning's Notes 8 daily build.   Now you can find something else to pick on....


Image:The power of negative suggestion ]]> http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dxcomments/the-power-of-negative-suggestion http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/the-power-of-negative-suggestion?opendocument&comments One plug-in model or 2? Thu, 25 Jan 2007 06:58:50 -0400 http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/one-plug-in-model-or-2 Jeff Eisen http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/one-plug-in-model-or-2?opendocument&comments http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/one-plug-in-model-or-2
We were saying that in general at Lotusphere this year, people seem to get the picture of base technology (Eclipse) with platform based on it (Lotus Expeditor) and multiple products built on this platform (Lotus Notes, Sametime, and standalone Expeditor).    Standalone Expeditor gets you the platform to develop and build apps on, but without the Sametime and Notes collaboration pieces.

The one confusion, he said, was people are unsure of and are getting inconsistent information as to the simple question:  "Does a plug-in written for Sametime work in Notes 8?"

So, to clarify, here goes.   Simple question, simple answer:  "Of course, yes".

Now, for some subtlety.   In Eclipse (and therefore Lotus Expeditor and therefore Notes and Sametime), to declare functionality such as that "you are a plug-in that goes in the sidebar", you use a named extension point to register this behavior.   An extension point is just a little bit of XML that typically is written using a easy form based user interface in the tooling.

Well, the confusion comes from the fact that in Sametime 7.5 (already released), the extension point used to declare that something is a "miniApp", namely a Sametime extension, is different than the extension point used in Notes 8 to declare something is in the sidebar.   The sidebar is a Lotus Expeditor (and hence Notes) feature for adding functionality to the right hand side of the top level window.

This difference is a very temporary situation and will be resolved by the time Lotus Notes and Sametime 7.5.1 ships.

So...

1) If you write or have already written a miniApp for Sametime 7.5, then you have to add a small amount of XML to the code to make it work in the sidebar in Notes 8, something like


extension point="com.ibm.rcp.platform.shelfViews"
       shelfView id="shelfid" view="idofviewpart"
extension


(I'm excluding at the moment the HTML less than and greater than signs of the markup, because not quite sure how to keep my blog template from eating it).

2) If you write a miniApp for Sametime 7.5.1 which will be out by when Notes 8 is available and is the version of Sametime included with Notes 8, you simply declare the above extension point when you are building your app and it will automatically work in both places.

Simple as that. ]]> http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dxcomments/one-plug-in-model-or-2 http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/one-plug-in-model-or-2?opendocument&comments 38-34 Bummer Sun, 21 Jan 2007 22:36:07 -0400 http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/38-34-bummer Jeff Eisen http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/38-34-bummer?opendocument&comments http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/38-34-bummer
Changed my room this morning.  Between the beep beep sound in the middle of the night of trucks backing up at the loading dock and the swish sound about once a minute from the leaking toilet, I decided I could do better. Now, no complaints.

Never quite made it over to Business Development Day stuff, but I checked out a few hands on and jump start sessions.  As Ed Brill says in his blog on the subject, sessions are crowded and there were long lines a half hour early for the hands on sessions.

My hands on for "Customizing IBM Lotus Notes 8" went fairly well, but it became clear, no surprise, that while the Notes developers may have heard of Eclipse and heard of Java, in general, their experience with either of them is pretty limited.   But, we did a fairly straightforward Lotus Expeditor/Eclipse plug-in with no Java required that extends search functionality.   Once you get the basic concepts and UI gestures for the tooling around Eclipse and Lotus Expeditor, you can add pretty powerful functionality without breaking a sweat.   It also became clear that there is confusion about what exactly Lotus Expeditor is.   I'll try to clear that up in this space in the next couple of days.

The party tonight was fun with the IBM Westford crew for the most part ending up sitting in the sand watching the Patriots/Colts game.    Good game -- bad ending.  Such is life.

Looking forward to the opening general session tomorrow.  I demoed in it last year, but this year I haven't been much involved.  From what I've seen, though, they are showing some pretty cool stuff.  

. ]]> http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dxcomments/38-34-bummer http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/38-34-bummer?opendocument&comments Just arrived in Orlando... Sun, 21 Jan 2007 01:25:40 -0400 http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/just-arrived-in-orlando... Jeff Eisen http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/just-arrived-in-orlando...?opendocument&comments http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/just-arrived-in-orlando...
I'm doing 2 (well kind of 2 1/2) sessions this year and each one has a repeat.

Presenting "ID101 -- What's New in IBM Lotus Notes 8 -- and Beyond".  The first is right after the opening general session (OGS) on Monday morning and the second is Wednesday afternoon.  I'll be presenting with Dwight Morse, the Notes product manager (who replaced Heidi Votaw in the role -- she's still with us, just different role).   I'm also presenting with Jim Marsden, the manager of the messaging apps in Lotus Notes 8, formerly known as "Hannover".  Unfortunately, you can only get two names on the presentation, so Jim is uncredited, but I'm giving him credit here.  His team has done an amazing job really delivering exciting improvements in Notes.  For anyone who gets to see Notes at the OGS, I hope you agree.  If you do, let me know.  If you don't, also let me know --  I can take it.

I'm also presenting "HND101 -- Customizing Lotus Notes 8", a two hour hands on around some cool customizations of Notes using Lotus Expeditor/Eclipse.  I'll be presenting with Brian Leonard, an amazing developer on the client team.    It's going to be on Sunday and Monday afternoons.  Will be a little weird showing how to customize Notes 8 on Sunday when they don't really see the full deal at the OGS until Monday, but so be it.

I'm actually doing another session of sorts, a BOOMERANG which is kind of like a birds of a feather (BOF), but slightly different (don't ask me how because I'm not really sure).    It is on Wednesday afternoon, "BOOM102 Decoding the Lotus Client Product Family".  Jim Colson is actually running the show, but I'll be there to to help make heads or tails out of Lotus Expeditor, Notes, Sametime, and other client products and how they all fit together.  

It's a little before 2AM and time to crash.  I'm staying at the Dolphin hotel and have a lovely view of the loading dock/garbage area in the back.    Membership has its privileges.   Wish I had a digital camera with me.  

Looking forward to showing people Lotus Notes this week, seeing a lot of old and new friends, and getting feedback. ]]> http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dxcomments/just-arrived-in-orlando... http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/just-arrived-in-orlando...?opendocument&comments Notes on a Stick on TV Mon, 16 Oct 2006 17:35:35 -0400 http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/notes-on-a-stick-on-tv Jeff Eisen http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/notes-on-a-stick-on-tv?opendocument&comments http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/notes-on-a-stick-on-tv
Here's a clip from NECN (New England Cable News) where none other than yours truly gets interviewed on the topic.   I hear I did well for a TV novice -- I'll just have to take the word of others on that.  Just too painful to watch myself :-)


New solution to go mobile with your workspace

(10/16/06 4:51 p.m.) Taking your work on the road is nothing new- IBM Lotus, is offering Lotus Notes, which stores documents, pictures and many other helpful items. Jeff Eisen of IBM Lotus has more on going mobile with your workspace ]]> http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dxcomments/notes-on-a-stick-on-tv http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/notes-on-a-stick-on-tv?opendocument&comments Brought to you by Research Mon, 18 Sep 2006 23:10:00 -0400 http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/brought-to-you-by-research Jeff Eisen http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/brought-to-you-by-research?opendocument&comments http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/brought-to-you-by-research
That's the yearly event where the IBM research folks and many development folks get together and do a show and tell of various research projects (related to Lotus software) and discuss where the research focus should be for the coming year.

I thought I'd use this opportunity to discuss an innovation coming in Hannover that started with our friends in research.

Activity-centric computing began as a project in IBM research a few years ago.  It made its first product appearance in the Workplace Managed Client as "Activity Explorer", but has since morphed from a single product in a single UI to a much more open platform around collaboration using RSS/Atom feeds and Rest style APIs.  The open approach of activities allows the integration of Activity-centric computing in Hannover, Sametime, MS Office, older version of Notes, browsers, and elsewhere -- pretty much anywhere you have e-mail or an HTTP stack.

The tag line around Activity-centric computing is:
Organize work around the activities people do, rather than the tools they use
 Here's a presentation that was given on it at Lotusphere this year by Jason Dumont

I've been struggling answering the question in an easily graspable manner of how activities (ok, I'm tired of typing "activity-centric computing") is really different from other related paradigms such as discussion databases, teamrooms, Quickplaces, and the like.  The answer struck me recently with a simple real world example.  

I wanted to collaborate with some colleagues on how we should integrate a certain technology into our portfolio.   The set of colleagues was those interested in this particular topic, but it was definitely not a "To:" list I have ever used before.   Would I set up a whole database or teamroom or Quickplace for just this set of people for something I expected to last just a few days.  No way -- too heavyweight for the task.   Without activities, I probably would have started an e-mail thread and I bet you would have too.  But, after the activity started, I ended up added a few more people to the fray.  Not too easy in an e-mail thread if you need to bring everyone up to speed and make sure they all get included on all the replies, etc.  An activity worked great for the task and I was able to easily add chats, web pages, attachments, and other contents to the activity.   Just too easy.

A lot of work on "activities" has clearly been done by the development teams, but a lot of ongoing work has also been done by research, continuing to drive different ideas around making Activity-centric computing more useful, intuitive, visually appealing, etc.  What's coming in Hannover is pretty powerful -- what's coming later even more so.  

It's always a great challenge to bring a research idea into a product.   Sometimes the ideas aren't mature enough, sometimes the market isn't ready, sometime it is just too much work to make it enterprise ready, sometimes there's just too many priorities to juggle, but sometimes things just come together.

Years ago, I worked as a coop student in a research lab -- at the Computer Science Laboratory (CSL) at Texas Instruments in Dallas.  We contributed some of the work we did to products (for example, I was involved with the introduction of the TI Explorer Lisp Machine), but a lot of the work we did was just interesting stuff that never really ended up in products.   Such is the nature of the beast.   But, of course, there are sometimes home runs.  Probably CSL's most widely known home run at the time was Speak & Spell -- a clever mix of technology and cool-ness.    

Looking today at the stuff coming out of IBM Research, you can bet (just playing the odds) that a lot of it is not going to be a home run and you'll likely never see it in a product.  

But, with Activity-centric computing, Dogear, and a host of other projects, I can just see the high fastball and the bat making solid contact... ]]> http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dxcomments/brought-to-you-by-research http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/brought-to-you-by-research?opendocument&comments Been dark Mon, 18 Sep 2006 23:05:39 -0400 http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/been-dark Jeff Eisen http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/been-dark?opendocument&comments http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/been-dark
Maybe I'll just stick with dog ate my homework. ]]> http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dxcomments/been-dark http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/been-dark?opendocument&comments Off to Phoenix Sun, 27 Aug 2006 15:29:37 -0400 http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/off-to-phoenix Jeff Eisen http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/off-to-phoenix?opendocument&comments http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/off-to-phoenix
Alan Lepofsky suggested I add some pictures to my last posting (on modifying Hannover look with some simple CSS changes).   Unfortunately, I've been mostly sleeping this weekend with a fever and/or cold that pretty much wiped me out, so you can just use your imagination on the pictures.

Feeling a little better now, but if I see you in Phoenix and look dazed or don't shake your hand, don't take it as a personal insult. ]]> http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dxcomments/off-to-phoenix http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/off-to-phoenix?opendocument&comments A simple task with Hannover Fri, 25 Aug 2006 14:27:47 -0400 http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/a-simple-task-with-hannover Jeff Eisen http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/a-simple-task-with-hannover?opendocument&comments http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/a-simple-task-with-hannover my talk at the Advisor Conference in Phoenix next week.

One of the demos is really simple stuff -- no "coding" required.  It is just changing one of the colors in the UI.  

So, what's the big deal you say.  I agree, it's not that big of a deal just changing a color, but three things struck me while doing it that are somewhat of a big deal.

First, customers and ISVs and such could never do this before.   The degree to which the overall UI in Notes was configurable was admittedly minimal.

Second, it's not some ad hoc proprietary mechanism for doing the customization.  I simply modified a color in a CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) property and took it from there.

Finally, it's really easy to deploy to your organization.   Anything related to Notes that is not part of a NSF/NTF has always been a challenge to actually get to the desktops.  This is getting pretty easy.  While I expect the functionality around "server managed desktop" as well as everything else to get better and better over time, it impressed me how even out of the gate in the Hannover release, the capabilities around deploying technology are leaps and bounds above where we are today in Notes 7. ]]> http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dxcomments/a-simple-task-with-hannover http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/a-simple-task-with-hannover?opendocument&comments Back from Vacation Wed, 23 Aug 2006 04:37:45 -0400 http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/back-from-vacation Jeff Eisen http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/back-from-vacation?opendocument&comments http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/back-from-vacation
Yes, we could have stayed in two rooms, but seemed silly paying for two rooms when our small childen would have insisted on staying in our room anyway.  We were searching in general for family rooms but was hard to find availability and some still wouldn't take 5 or were smoking rooms.

In London, we ended up staying at the Marriott County Hall for a few nights over the weekend (nice hotel and nice location) with only um er uh registering for two adults and two kids.  A baby doesn't really count as a kid, does it, when you walk quickly by the registration desk?    

We also stayed for a night at the Premier Travel Inn County Hall which took 5 no problem.  We switched hotels the last night in London because Marriott was crazy prices during the week and we just needed a quick night's stay before an early morning Chunnel trip.

We also stayed in some family rooms in the Cotswolds in England at B&Bs -- very nice.

In Paris, we stayed in a family room in the Latin Quarter for a couple of nights.  Enormous room.  Yes, kind of a mini-suite.  Not fancy place, but served us well.

We also stayed a few nights at a relative's house near Versailles (in a little town called Garancieres).  Five obviously not a problem there.

The funny thing is that the only really problem we had with five the whole trip was returning yesterday.  At the taxi stand at Logan Airport in Boston, the cab didn't want to take all five of us -- said his limit was four and that we needed a van.   The taxi wrangler (or whatever they are called) yelled at the driver and said he had to take five, reported the driver, and sent him off without us.    The next cab in line was no problem.

So, home safe and sound and ready to get back to work. ]]> http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dxcomments/back-from-vacation http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/back-from-vacation?opendocument&comments Don’t Europeans have Children? Tue, 8 Aug 2006 07:08:47 -0400 http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/dont-europeans-have-children Jeff Eisen http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/dont-europeans-have-children?opendocument&comments http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/dont-europeans-have-children Advisor Conference later this month and filing my taxes (for those non-Americans, taxes are due April 15 but you can get an automatic extension to August 15).

I've also installed Notes on a USB stick with the Lotus Notes Nomad solution.   Like others, I've been debating whether to bring a laptop.  At the moment, I'm leaning against but won't know for sure until I head to the airport.  My challenge, of course, will be to find a computer that I can stick the stick into.  I have my doubts whether internet cafes are too crazy about you sticking things into their computers.  

The craziest quest though has been to find hotel rooms in Europe for my family.  It's the five of us -- my wife, myself, and our three children ages 1 through 8.     In the US, you just find a room for 2 adults and shove the 3 kids in there.  In Europe it is a challenge, even among large hotel chains, to find a place that will take more than 2 adults and 1 kid in a room.  Do you Europeans out there really buy two rooms for a family with 2 or 3 small kids?   One thoughtful place offered two rooms in two different buildings.   Tempting, huh?  

So, I was wondering:  Don't Europeans have children? ]]> http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dxcomments/dont-europeans-have-children http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/dont-europeans-have-children?opendocument&comments Should you learn Java for Hannover? Fri, 28 Jul 2006 20:38:52 -0400 http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/should-you-learn-java-for-hannover Jeff Eisen http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/should-you-learn-java-for-hannover?opendocument&comments http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/should-you-learn-java-for-hannover
Let's start with the simple, unequivocal answer -- the rumors are blatantly FALSE!

You can still program in LotusScript and formula language and such just like you do today with all the old APIs still working (see my previous post).

So, next comes the more interesting question:  Should you learn Java?   That one's harder to answer.

In Hannover, using Domino Designer, you still have access to your usual bag of tricks, as powerful as ever.  

You also have access to Workplace Designer to build components, a tool designed to appeal to  application developers with roughly the same type of programming skills as Domino Designer developers but in a more open, industry standard manner.  That is, Workplace Designer is also a scripting based WYSIWYG tool but uses Javascript rather than LotusScript as the extension scripting language.  And, as I'm sure you are aware, the only thing that Javascript and Java have in common is the first four letters.   Workplace Designer allows you, among other things, to invoke web services.  Maybe the web services are implemented in Java, but you don't have to worry about that unless you're actually writing the web services.    

There are yet other ways to fill the rectangles on the screen, such as plain old web pages using the HTML generation tool of your choice.

Then, of course you want to tie the rectangles together so they sit next to each other and actions in one rectangle drives behavior in another.   Well, still don't need Java.   You can use a simple wiring tool to layout the parts of a composite application and to determine how the data from the various parts interact.

So, you've now built a bunch of rectangles a.k.a. parts a.k.a. components and laid them out and designed some pretty interesting interactions.   Powerful stuff and you haven't even touched Java yet.   Cool.

What are you still missing?   There are some things in the Hannover world that can only be done in Java.  Hannover is built atop Eclipse and Eclipse's basic contribution model is plug-ins written in Java.  So, for example, if you want to write some code so that a right click on a person's name anywhere in the product presents a menu item to text message their cell phone, you'd do it in Java.  

Possibly, going forward in the releases past Hannover, more of this type of extending the product will be doable in a tool such as Workplace Designer.  But, for now, doing at least some of the work in Java is the best way to have pretty extensive control over all the nuances of the Hannover/Eclipse experience.  

Do you need this to get started or even a lot more than just get started -- no.   Does it expand the possibilities of what you can do -- certainly.  

Reminds me of a question I heard at a meeting years ago about the global workforce.  The (somewhat sarcastic) question came up of "Should I learn Chinese".  The answer was, "couldn't hurt".  You don't need to know it, but it's always good to know new things because you never can tell when it will open up new opportunities.

So, Should you learn Java?  I say, you don't have to, but "couldn't hurt".

Zai Jian zaijian.jpg (goodbye) ]]> http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dxcomments/should-you-learn-java-for-hannover http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/should-you-learn-java-for-hannover?opendocument&comments How do you combat FUD without feeling stupid? Tue, 25 Jul 2006 08:10:00 -0400 http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/how-do-you-combat-fud-without-feeling-stupid Jeff Eisen http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/how-do-you-combat-fud-without-feeling-stupid?opendocument&comments http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/how-do-you-combat-fud-without-feeling-stupid

  1. Run any application unmodified in the Workplace Client
  2. ALL Notes applications run
  3. Existing applications run unmodified in new user interface
  4. Run existing Notes/Domino applications unmodified
  5. All current APIs Supported!
  6. APIs unchanged
  7. no rip and replace
  8. Preserves investment in software
  9. As always, strong commitment to backward compatbility
  10. Composite applications ... preserve investment in Notes applications

So, what's the optimal number of times to say something so that it sinks in but that you don't feel ridiculous? ]]> http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dxcomments/how-do-you-combat-fud-without-feeling-stupid http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/how-do-you-combat-fud-without-feeling-stupid?opendocument&comments Hannover 101 -- The Basics Sun, 23 Jul 2006 22:40:00 -0400 http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/hannover-101----the-basics Hannover101 Jeff Eisen http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/hannover-101----the-basics?opendocument&comments http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/hannover-101----the-basics
Hannover is the code-name for the next major release of Notes.    There will be maintenance releases in the 7.0.x stream and 6.5.x coming out before Hannover, but no other feature release of Notes is coming before Hannover.   The code-name Hannover refers to the Notes client.  The Domino server that will be released with Hannover is code-named "Domino Next".  

Currently, there is no official number assigned to Hannover or Domino Next because any numbering and naming has to clear lengthy legal hurdles.  But, between you and me, the number is likely to be somewhere between 7.99 and 8.01.

Hannover brings the most significant changes to the Notes client since probably Notes 4.0, when we introduced LotusScript.

The technical  key to the changes is the tight integration with Eclipse.  I highlight technical, because there is also an enormous emphasis in Hannover on user interface and productivity improvements and innovations such as Activity-based collaboration as well as the productivity editors.   The UI I'll leave to Mary Beth Raven to discuss in her blog.  Other stuff, I'll get to in good time.

For those uninitiated in Eclipse, here's a quick description of Eclipse and why it matters.

Eclipse is a cross-platform open source Java project with heavy IBM involvement.  It began as a platform for building IDEs (compilers, editors, debuggers, etc.)  It uses a contribution model, which means that if the platform lacks functionality or behavior, you can add it yourself by writing some Java code, packaging it in something called a plug-in, and installing your plug-in.  Example: If Eclipse could compile and edit Java, C++, and Pascal, but you really needed COBOL, you could just write a COBOL plug-in (in Java), install it, and there would suddenly be COBOL related menus, actions, behaviors, etc., throughout the user experience.   Eclipse 3.0 introduced RCP - the Rich Client Platform, allowing Eclipse to be used for something other than an IDE by allowing one to get rid of the geeky IDE stuff (such as compilers) and by allowing one better control over the UI in order to make it more polished and customizable (such as for branding).

IBM is building a common platform titled Lotus Expeditor  (previously named WED), that packages Eclipse RCP with some extra services (around security, synchronization, data, deployment, and so forth) to be used across the Software Group product set.    Hannover is simply a consumer of this Lotus Expeditor common platform.

Note that when I said above that a plug-in is written in Java, that does not mean it must be exclusively written in Java.  With Java mechanisms such as JNI -- allowing Java code to call out to C++ or other language code -- as well as Service Oriented Architecture techniques such as web services (OK, I've mentioned SOA -- now I'm buzzword compliant), a plug-in can be used to bridge between the Java world and a "legacy" non-Java codebase.  This is what Hannover does -- integrate Java code packaged in plug-ins with the mostly pre-existing and mostly C/C++ Notes codebase.    This existing codebase provides the bug for bug compatibility with older versions of Notes, allowing Notes applications written way back in V1 days to still run in Hannover.  

So, why is this Eclipse platform interesting to the Notes/Domino customer base and particularly to the application development community?

  • Eclipse's contribution model allows modification of the Notes user experience and general behavior of Notes in ways never before possible.  You can go beyond just affecting your application "rectangle", making more global cross-application extensions.
  • Eclipse allows development for Notes by those without traditional Notes skills, enabling the expansive Eclipse development community to participate in Notes development.
  • The common platform used throughout IBM (Lotus Expeditor atop Eclipse) allows you to write a plug-in contributing behavior for one product (such as the newest version of Sametime) and have it work in another product (such as Hannover).
  • By standing on the shoulders of others (developing Eclipse and Java as well as extensions), we are able to build a cross-platform product (Windows, Linux, and MAC) much more quickly than if we had to do it all ourselves,  greatly improving our time to market and your opportunity to get new value. Eclipse enables us to leverage the skills, creativity, and sheer manpower of the dedicated Eclipse open source community.  

While the focus of Hannover is clearly the Eclipse-based client, there will still be a "traditional" technology non-Eclipse version of the Notes client delivered as part of the Hannover release.  We have admittedly been not too succinct around the nomenclature of how to refer to the Eclipse vs. the non-Eclipse Notes instantiation.  In general, unless I make an explicit distinction, I will be using the term Hannover rather loosely, to refer to the Eclipse-based version of the client.

Finally, a word about the server.  Like previous releases of Notes, the basic server instrastructure of Hannover is a Domino server -- all you need for the vast majority of the functionality including mail, calendaring, contact management, Notes applications, and composite applications is a Domino server.  Some functionality, such as activity based collaboration require more than just plain Domino, but that's optional.

I'll cover more "Hannover 101" topics in the upcoming weeks and months, but I hope this is a good start at a common understanding. ]]> http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dxcomments/hannover-101----the-basics http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/hannover-101----the-basics?opendocument&comments Climbed a tree today Fri, 21 Jul 2006 17:06:26 -0400 http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/climbed-a-tree-today Jeff Eisen http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/climbed-a-tree-today?opendocument&comments http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/climbed-a-tree-today
This afternoon I played hookey.  It was "Parents Day" at my daughter's camp.  As one of the activities, the parents got to climb the high rope up to a platform fairly high up in a tall tree, carabiner and all.

I don't think I've ever done that before.   Pretty cool way to spend a Friday afternoon ]]> http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dxcomments/climbed-a-tree-today http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/climbed-a-tree-today?opendocument&comments Help! I need content Fri, 21 Jul 2006 10:16:14 -0400 http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/help--i-need-content Jeff Eisen http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/help--i-need-content?opendocument&comments http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/help--i-need-content
In my session Hannover: The Technical Perspective, I'm trying to mostly stick to technical things, not doing demos of the cool UI and productivity gains of Hannover.  Other talks will be covering that.   By the way, I just noticed that my session summary has Session Type of "Keynote" and Technical Level of "Strategic Perspective".  I'm not even sure what that means, but it sure sounds wrong.

So, that leads me to the question of what technical things do you want to hear about or are you confused about?  

For the Advisor conference, it is a fairly urgent question (the slide deck was due 4 days ago and I haven't really started it yet).  In general, not quite as urgent a question, but will help me figure out what kind of topics to write about here.

If you had to write an agenda/outline for my talk, what would you put on it? ]]> http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dxcomments/help--i-need-content http://jeffeisen.com/jeisen/jeisenblog.nsf/dx/help--i-need-content?opendocument&comments