Much has been written, and even more said, about those dark forces from the Northwest, the evil willies of Redmond. Why does one little software company evoke such harsh sentiment from almost everyone in the industry (not to mention the occasional investigation from the Department of Justice)?

The subject came up again at dinner last night, and I was unsurprised by the unanimity and depth of feeling. "Unscrupulous bastards," "criminals," "lunatics." Round the table we went (myself included), in a game of "top the epithet." I started to feel sorry for Bill Gates.

But... I've witnessed my share of Microsoft's "interesting behavior." Is it coincidence that Microsoft announced PenWindows just one day before Go Corporation announced its PenPoint operating system for portable pen computers? Microsoft was a key PenPoint developer—Go had even invited Microsoft to demonstrate their application at the PenPoint rollout. Yet, somehow, the other half of Microsoft (the system software folks) chose to repay this kindness by scooping Go with their own PenWindows intro. This "coincidence" took a little of the steam out of Go's announcement.

Criminal behavior? I wouldn't like it if they did it to my little sister, but... probably not illegal. Besides, wasn't Go asking for trouble by inviting the fox into the preproduct introduction henhouse?

I see Microsoft as a remarkably persistent company whose business tactics are extremely aggressive, bordering on ruthless. They push the limits, but as any adolescent can tell you: That's What Limits Are There For. Microsoft has a position of power in this industry that's unparalleled, and they sometimes abuse it. But it wasn't always this way...

[WAVY LINES ACROSS THE SCREEN; HARP ARPEGGIOS ON THE SOUNDTRACK]

I first worked with Microsoft when they had a single product, a BASIC interpreter. Not the stuff the world's largest personal fortune is made of, but it was a good product. It actually worked. Then they made their second product, a FORTRAN compiler for CP/M. It too was a good product. It also worked. And it was documented. Again, this may not sound like much, but it did serve to distinguish the product from its competition. Microsoft was a scrappy little company (about the size of Be), but it was just one of a number of scrappy little companies in the microcomputer language market. In the years before their big break with DOS for the IBM PC, Microsoft slowly but steadily increased their product line, their quality and support, and their revenues.

Microsoft first showed a version of Windows in 1983. It was miserable. Nobody bought it. They regrouped and refined and launched Windows 2.0. It too was miserable. Nobody bought it. They regrouped and refined and launched Windows 3.0 in 1990. Better. People started to actually use it. Refinements known as Windows 3.1 made it a highly successful product. Once again the traditions of persistence and refinement paid off.

There is a bumper sticker about Macintosh that really bugs me: "Windows '95 = Macintosh '89."

It's not the logic that bugs me—yes, of course Windows '95 is no better than Macintosh in 1989. But I want the companion bumper sticker, which is just as true: "Macintosh '95 = Macintosh '89."

So next time people start complaining about the tactics of Microsoft, I might be compelled to point out that while Bill Gates is our only modern example of the robber baron, his company's drive and persistence in continuously improving their products might also be part of their success.

What is a Technical Evangelist anyway? Well, it's a name that I made up so that I could fit into this awesome company. A Technical Evangelist is a person with a lot of engineering experience who has a fire in the belly to become a marketing type person. The evangelism aspect of the job is to spread the gospel of the BeOS™ as far and wide as possible.

The BeOS provides a platform upon which developers can "do the right thing." As a company that's interested in longevity, and ready market acceptance, we're interested in getting software from well-established companies, but that's not the exciting stuff. What's really exciting are the offerings of the small developers who take a risk on a new platform and dare to create something a little bit different from the past—and often a few levels better.

So, how can a Technical Evangelist help this process? Well... the Technical Evangelist can write code. A lot of code. The Evangelist can show developers how easy (or hard) it is to use the system in a particular way for maximum effect.

In working with NeXT and Taligent, I always pressed hard for good documentation and sample apps. So I believe this is the best thing for the BeOS as well.

This week finds us looking at how to support something like Photoshop. We have a modest application, Rraster! The primary function of this application is as a replacement for the ImageViewer application, which comes with the BeOS. I took a look at the ImageViewer code and thought, "This could be made into a lot better and more useful example."

Rraster! is like ImageViewer in that it lets you drag and drop images on it to view them. The twist is that it allows you to drag and drop images of any type! It achieves this by use of add-ons. The interface is easy, and a GIF and PCX add-on are included. There is a simple add-on manager that shows how add-ons can be easily supported in any application. I don't want to spoil all the fun, because this was also the basis for an upcoming magazine article, but there's a lot of good stuff in here.

The other things you'll see in this sample are how to properly launch an application and deal with parameters, whether you dragged and dropped onto the icon, double- clicked a file, or launched it from the command line. These are mundane issues, but they can be maddening if you can't do them right.

You can get the code from: ftp://ftp.be.com/pub/Samples/Rraster.tgz

The add-on support is very basic, and is meant to give you a good idea of how easy it is to use add-ons. As far as data translation in general is concerned, you should probably take a look at the DataTypes library by Jon Watte.

My primary occupation is as a VLSI design engineer. My responsibilies are a combination of circuit design and CAD software design and modification. I've been fascinated with electronics since I was a kid. As I dabbled in computer programming a few years later, I developed interests in scientific software tools developement. What I've enjoyed most is the continuous challenge and the constantly expanding base of knowledge from which I could learn exciting new ideas.

In the late 80s I closely watched the development of the Amiga computer system. It was a novel system with many features unmatched in other systems of the time. A group of friends and I decided that it would be cool to develop software for this system. We formed a small group that collaborated on a few small projects. Unfortunately the Amiga entered a long period of stagnation, and there was no attractive alternative platform for our varied projects.

Last year we started hearing rumors of the upcoming BeBox. At first we cautiously stood back and watched Be, Inc. The BeBox and BeOS seemed to be well thought out. Designed from the ground up, not just for multitasking, but for multiprocessing. The BeBox also had many nice standard features, such as SCSI and IDE, PCI and ISA, PowerPC CPUs, and the GeekPort™. (Clearly more than the cheapest common denominator sold by many other companies.) However, a good product alone is not sufficient.

We wanted to make sure that the company was going to be committed to developing a strong and unique product, and most important, that it was willing to commit to helping developers and to pushing the development of products on the new platform. Be seems to be doing precisely that. They seem to be willing to accept and support small-time developers. It's always been my experience that the majority of software used on systems is not the major applications, but the small additions, utilities, and tools developed by small developers. It's also these small things that give a system the general functionality (if not the feel) that makes a system so great. They also seem to be very open with information about their system. The major manuals and information about the BeBox and BeOS all seem to be freely accessible via the Internet.

I feel that developing for the BeBox is a unique oppurtunity. The user base is clearly a cut above average, for being willing and able to work with a new system such as this. Further, the market is probably going to be much more open to new software, users aren't likely to be limiting themselves to the "I've got the same software as everyone else" attitude. This will hopefully give not only software my friends and I develop a better chance of making it off the ground, but should also provide us with a more diverse set of software and tools for us to choose from to aid our work.

The BeBox also provides a lower-cost route to parallel processing. I look forward to investigating parallelizing software algorithms, and integrating these techniques in more responsive applications. The BeOS seems much friendlier to multithreaded applications than any other OS I've worked with.

The BeOS also seems to provide several other unique features that it would be cool to use. Some of these include the object-oriented approach used throughout the OS and the integrated file system and database.

Having only been accepted as a Be developer in the last few weeks, I'm still investigating my options as far what products I (and probably several of my friends) decide to work on. Numerous ideas I've been considering include:

• Schematic entry utilities
• Circuit board layout tools
• Circuit analysis programs (both digital and analog)
• Mathematic analysis or spreadsheet software
• And the old classic... games development

Most likely none of these will be available before the middle of next year. Most of these are targeted at electrical engineers and hobbyists. They would probably be released as low-cost commercial packages.

I like bananas. In fact, I like them a lot. I bring a few of these wonderful fruits to the office every day and my colleagues have probably noticed that I munch on one sometimes as I wander from cube to cube. I hope that they don't mind when I absentmindedly drop banana skins into their waste baskets. I guess I should retain my banana detritus and dispose of it in the Be kitchen, where it could aid in the evolution of the strange lifeform that is beginning to write code with pseudopods as it grows in the refrigerator.

Whether or not my Be colleagues have noted my passion for bananas, I know someone who definitely has: The management of a hotel in Hong Kong.

Last year, I had the pleasure of visiting Hong Kong eight times, to work at the Asian HQ of my then employer. On each occasion, having survived the truly unique final approach and landing to Hong Kong's tired, overloaded airport, I would present myself at the same hotel's checkin somewhat worse for wear and ready for bed. The first time I stayed there, I was greeted professionally and quickly checked in, and my room featured a little bowl of fruit. During the next 48 hours, I consumed, of course, the two available bananas but eschewed the kiwi fruit and apples. During the next seven stays, the level of greeting escalated from the regular checkin staff through to the manager herself and the bowl of fruit (and room) grew bigger and, on my last stay, included no less than eight bananas and a note indicating that more of them were available on request.

Imagine what kind of customer service system notes guests' banana eating patterns and adjusts the room inventory accordingly. And, although I have my peculiarities, they pretty much limited themselves in Hong Kong to unusually high banana consumption. Imagine, if you will, how this hotel's customer service system adjusts to a much wider range of guests' preferences and idiosyncracies. Impressive, and not a little scary.

Be's first distribution channel is direct sales of our products through the web and other methods involving direct contact between the customer and Be. When you order a BeBox, send in a check, ask for the shipping date, deal with warranty issues, or have general product and logistical questions, you're working with Customer Service. Right now, that usually means working with Lilia Simbe, who's built a reputation with our customers for quick, pleasant, useful responses. We're building our customer service function to enable us to deal personally and efficiently with our growing customer base while not losing that personal contact between the customer and someone who knows Be and its products and cares that customers are satisfied. Early next year, when we ship our BeOS for PowerMac product, we expect (and hope!) that our unit volume grows by two orders of magnitude, and we very much want to keep direct contact with as many customers as possible. That's why we'll continue to focus on direct sales while simultaneously building other channels for our products.

Direct customer contact is not, by the way, a way to make more margin on products. Life being what it is, and the "no free lunch" law continuing to apply, all channels tend towards generating the same bottom-line profit for a company. The main purpose of direct customer contact is to see, hear, and feel what customers think about Be and our products.

So if you get in touch with Be next year to order the BeOS for PowerMac and someone asks you if you like bananas, don't be too surprised.

I receive many e-mail messages asking me to comment on rumored conversations between Apple and Be. No, no comment, maybe, yes—there are many possible responses. Rather than picking one, I'll direct you to two URLs:

http://biz.yahoo.com/finance/96/11/05/aapl_3.html
http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?96115.eamel.htm

BeDevTalk is an unmonitored discussion group in which technical information is shared by Be developers and interested parties. In this column, we summarize some of the active threads, listed by their subject lines as they appear, verbatim, in the mail.

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