InterSystem's DEVCON 2007

International Spectrum had the opportunity to attend the developers conference of our newest addition to the MultiValue Community—InterSystems . The conference, which they called DEVCON 2007, was in Orlando, Florida, March 25 through 30 (including various pre and post Main Conference sessions). Of course, we concentrated on the new sessions that were targeted at the newly released MultiValue support within Caché . Our goal was not just to do a technical analysis on this implementation of MultiValue, but to get an idea of what the Caché Community was like, and how MultiValue might fit into that picture.
 
There was a half day session on Sunday, followed up by a full day session on Thursday that was strictly about MultiValue and how it was implemented as a part of Caché. These sessions were conducted by Joe Gallant of InterSystems.
 
Joe is no newcomer to MultiValue. He worked at Prime Computer and was very involved with Prime INFORMATION. His presentations were very clear, easy to follow, but by no means a "high level" overview of the subject. He got into the details, but explained things clearly. It was good to have someone who understood the environment and concerns of the MultiValue users being a bridge between MultiValue as we know it, and Caché's MultiValue capability as InterSystems envisions it.
 
Most of the sessions from DEVCON 2007 are available for download in audio and presentation format from www.intersystems.com/devcon2007/agenda.html , including the MultiValue sessions that ran throughout the week.
 
While presentations make up the bulk of any gathering of this type, we were also interested in what else the conference had to offer. Please note that while most of these observations are those of the Spectrum attendee, they are influenced by conversations, lunch-time pow-wows, and "off campus" conversations with several MultiValue colleagues who were also present.
 
Probably the most impressive thing about DEVCON for the MultiValue attendee, other than the sessions, was the access to the Developers. You need to realize that "The Developers" is code-speak within InterSystems. The rest of us call them "The Product Engineers," the Ones who are actually writing the code. Most of the MultiValue attendees I talked to were a bit taken aback at how much access they had to the people who actually are involved with implementing MultiValue in Caché. It was very reminiscent of the Old Days when you could pick up the phone and talk to someone who actually was looking at The Code. One of our colleagues was even quoted as saying, "This feels like Old Home Week."
 
But, cynical types that we are, you would expect this kind of special treatment during the wooing period. But we noted that this was not just a MultiValue phenomenon. There was a (large) room designated as the Developer Room. This was where you could go and grab someone who worked on the <fill-in-the-blank> portions of Caché. I decided to test that assertion. So I walked in, approached the first InterSystems looking person I saw (they really ought to wear branded shirts or something, otherwise they look like us), and said, "I need to talk to someone about what you are doing for cross-platform compatibility of (non-MV) X." Within 3 minutes (or less) I was talking to an engineer who was working on X.
 
Now, not to paint everything roses, we need to note that the MultiValue developers were not in ready appearance in the room. That, however, could be explained by the fact that they were on us MultiValue attendees, as my dad used to say, "like a duck on a June Bug." They were at all the sessions. They were fielding questions during the sessions. They were at lunch. They were always where a MultiValue attendee could find them. This was a Good Thing this conference. They were where they were needed—with us. We hope that as MultiValue becomes more well known in the Caché community, they have to move to the developer room. With the pizza buffet and the Espresso bar to pass our time, I'm sure we'll learn how to share them with other users.
 
In summary, we were impressed with DEVCON 2007. The energy level is outstanding. InterSystems is making a great effort to promote Caché's MultiValue capability to the MultiValue community. However, we are once again in a "who are those people" scenario. Caché users don't know what MultiValue is about, and MultiValue folks haven't yet grasped how InterSystem's offering is different from yet another MultiValue platform. There is much to be done to convince the two communities they have common interests.
 
But if InterSystems DEVCON 2007 is any indication, DEVCON 2008 should be very interesting indeed.
 
Mr. Robert Nagle, Vice President of Software Development, also granted us an interview. Look for it in the May/June Issue of International Spectrum Magazine.