Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!lll-winken!unixhub!saab.stanford.edu!portia.stanford.edu!azure From: azure@portia.Stanford.EDU (Lai Heng Chua) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: SOME ADVICE FOR NEXT Message-ID: <1990Sep28.233054.2605@portia.Stanford.EDU> Date: 28 Sep 90 23:30:54 GMT References: <340@atncpc.UUCP> Distribution: comp Organization: AIR, Stanford University Lines: 48 What is important for NeXT in the coming year? Right now they have to build a big enough base for sure. I'm amazed, I can't get a decent 030 Mac for the price of an 040 NeXT. Unfortunately, NeXT abandoned two of their selling points (and uniqueness) - the bundled applications and the OD. The OD can be dropped and recovered later but there should be consistency on the bundled applications for a long time frame. Take Lisp for example. If you develop Lisp applications for the NeXT that goes for $250, you don't want to have to have the buyer pay $1500 for the Lisp. Who is going to buy your app.? If you have an app that messages Mathematica and the latter doesn't come with all machines, what is the use. Same for Sybase. These are enabling software and NeXT was right to bundle them with the machines. I think it becomes much harder to develop powerful apps for the NeXT with many of the underpinings gone. Software costs will also be expected to be higher. Fortunately, Webster is still around. Every app can message Webster to help the user. Some suggestions: NeXT work on making multiprocessing on the NeXT work in anticipation of multi-CPU NeXT. That is compiler, libraries and multi-CPU architecture. The object oriented paradigm is a help but something like Gul Agha's Actors would have been better. Programmers should not have to worry too much about threads etc. Maybe they should develop Actor-C. Mach is just great. Watch non-unix machines trying to go multi-CPUs. 4 040 should yield about 60 MIPS. MIPS is not everything but I'm afraid it is still important to keep up with the competition. Applications grow to consume the MIPS available. Put together a database strategy. All these small little databases for each app. doesn't do it. Client/server allows dynamic sharing of data but a unified database provides persistence. You can interrupt your work and get back to the state you were in. Imagine, if you want to you can get back all your windows with the appropriate files open and in the previous locations. Different people can work on accounting data etc. Why do you thing companies use IBM mainframes and resist the PCs? Why are the mainframes still around and well....? I remember NeXT says that it is going for leveraging group work and database is really important. Object database may be the way to go given the object orientedness of NeXT. How about integrating all the help documentation? Chua chua@cive.stanford.edu