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Be Newsletter
Issue 24, May 22, 1996
Table of Contents
Be European Demo Tour:
Schedule
- BASEL, Switzerland
Where: Physikalisches Institut
Klingelbergstrasse 82
Hoersaal 1 (use the entrance at the
St. Johanns Ring)
When: Wednesday, May 22, 1996, at 4:30 PM
- FRANKFURT, Germany
When: Thursday, May 23, 1996, from 7:00 PM to 10:00
PM
Where: PC Pool des Fachbereichs Wirtschaftsinformatik
Universitaet Frankfurt am Main
Mertonstrasse 17
Frankfurt / Bockenheim
Gebaeudeteil C, 4. Stock
- BRUSSELS, Belgium
When: Friday, May 24, 1996, at 3:00 PM
Where: Association Artistique d'Auderghem
Centre Culturel
Boulevard du Souverain, 183
1160 Bruxelles
- AARHUS, Denmark
Where: Aarhus University
When: Wednesday, May 29, 1996
More info on this event to come.
- ODENSE, Denmark
Where: Odense University
When: Thursday, May 30, 1996
More info on this event to come.
- LUND, Sweden
Where: Institute of Technology
Main auditorium, in the "Karhuset" building
When: Friday, May 31, 1996
From 17.00 to 19.30
More info on this event to come.
Check
http://www.beeurope.com/Demos/index.html
regularly for updates on these events.
BE ENGINEERING INSIGHTS: BeBox
Demo -- Take 1
By Steve Horowitz
Although everyone at Be has demonstrated the BeBox at one
time or another, it's safe to say that when the score sheet
is tallied, the author's name will loom above all others in
sheer number of demo performances. This isn't necessarily a
statement that I would like to have scrawled on my forehead
in green ink, but it does place me at a vantage from which I
can offer a few suggestions that you might want to consider
when you demonstrate your own BeBox to your friends and
colleagues.
We've spent a lot of time writing about and discussing the
features and capabilities of the BeBox, with its
dual-processor hardware and fresh new operating system.
However, by far the best way to truly understand what makes
the Be OS(TM) unique is to see a demo.
I like to start a demo by stroking the magic chicken bone
that I hold between the second and third toes on my right
foot. Then I turn to the Browser. Besides being an obvious
choice on a freshly booted box, the Browser is reasonably
self-explanatory; this helps people to relate (and compare)
what they're about to see to machines they've already used.
A good way to do this is to open and close a few folders.
Not only does this demonstrate the hierarchical file system,
which is a touchstone for most folks, it also gives people a
feel for the general responsiveness of the Be OS.
Next, I like to drag a folder window around the screen, thus
demonstrating our "live" windows: As the window moves, its
contents move with it -- there's no "outline dragging."
Resizing a window is next; again, the window's contents are
updated as more or less of the window is displayed. As
you're doing all this, you can explain that the live windows
are implemented without the use of a "backing buffer," that
each window is running in a separate thread, that when you
resize a window an "update" is automatically generated, and
each background window updates its contents
asynchronously.
As a sobriety check, mention the database (lock the doors
first). Use the Browser's Find panel to easily construct a
query -- I like to look for all files greater than 900K that
contain the letter 'e'. When the query window opens, display
the files' path names by choosing the Path item in the
window's Fields menu. This demonstrates that the file and
folders were collected from all over the hard disk.
Double-click a path name to open the named file or folder,
and change the name of that file or folder so it no longer
meets the query criteria. Like magic -- or like a
well-crafted integrated database -- the file is removed from
the query window. This can be inordinately impressive, so do
it a few times.
Step up the tempo a bit: Open the Mailbox icon and start a
movie. While the movie is playing, start a piece of audio
mail. (See page 90 of the "Be User's Guide" if you don't
have any movies or sounds in your Mailbox.) Once the movie
and sound are going, show that the system is still quite
responsive by opening a few folders and pulling down some
menus. This quick glimpse at multimedia is but a tease. Stop
the movie. Stop the music. We'll return to them later.
Moving to the apps folder, the first application I always
launch is FontDemo. First resize whatever font comes up
(assuming it's not a bitmap) and show how you can resize,
shear, and rotate the font interactively. Then click on the
"Cycle Fonts" button and show that even as you cycle through
all the fonts in the system you can still adjust the font
attributes and resize the fonts very quickly.
CDPlayer is the next application I launch. First, play
different tracks from a standard audio CD. Next, record some
music directly from the audio CD onto your hard disk: Click
on the disk icon and use the track's time representation and
preview button to isolate the portion of the track you want
to record. Point out that the size calculation is computed
dynamically as you adjust the length of the piece you're
going to save.
The Mandelbrot application is a good example of what two
processors can do when they work together. Explain that the
Mandelbrot calculation is designed to run in two threads,
one for even and one for odd scan lines. These threads are
"assigned" to the two processors automatically by the OS. I
like to make it clear that this assignation isn't permanent;
when it's time for a thread to run, the system runs it on
whichever processor is available.
Once you've recalculated the Mandelbrot set a number of
times (by repeatedly dragging across portions of the
window), bring up the Pulse application. Pulse shows that,
indeed, both processors are working simultaneously; and, by
turning off one of the processors (by clicking on the
processor number in Pulse), you can show the performance
difference between a single-processor and a dual-processor
machine.
Move to the ImageViewer application. (To show this best you
need to be in 32-bit color mode.) The first thing to do is
open up a couple of 32-bit TIFF images from the "images"
folder (this is one of the optional items from the "Be OS"
CD-ROM). Make a selection in one image, and drag it into the
other. Drag a selection into a folder window to save the
clipping as a file. Drag the file into another image -- the
saved clipping is automatically overlaid on the target
image. All of this is made possible through the BMessage
object.
The Flight application is a good demonstration of some
simple 3D rendering in a joystick-controlled game. (I prefer
the 8-bit version of the demo; the 32-bit version looks
better, but it isn't as responsive.) For kicks, try flying
with one hand (on the joystick) while dragging and resizing
the game window with the other (using the mouse). Try
flying, resizing, and singing at the same time. Ask your
audience to join in.
Another game worth showing off is Innerstrike from Ex
Algebra (look for it in the optional folder on the "Be OS"
CD-ROM). You should run through the game ahead of time to
figure out the configuration menus. The introduction is
pretty impressive, with nice sound and 3D graphics. To get
out of the game (at any time), press the Alternate and
Escape keys. This will cycle through a couple of screens and
then restore the screen to its previous state.
Now comes the grand finale. This is the trickiest part of a
good Be demo, but it's also the most impressive. Here's what
I suggest:
- After quitting all running applications, open up the
apps folder and start CDPlayer to get some background
music going. Then open the Mailbox and double-click one
of the larger movies (Be Logo or Nefertiti).
- While the movie is loading, open up the apps folder
again and launch FontDemo. Shrink the FontDemo window to
about half its original size, resize the font to be a
little larger than the default and click the Cycle Fonts
button. Then minimize the Controls window by
double-clicking its title bar and move the Display window
to the lower left of the screen.
- By this time the movie is probably running -- move it
to the top right of the screen. Launch Mandelbrot to show
that there are still some CPU resources left over;
iterate through the set a few times.
- Next, open a piece of audio mail from the Mailbox;
the mail audio will automatically mix in with the CD
audio.
- Launch a couple more movies and, while you're waiting
for them to come up, bring up the Pulse application to
show CPU activity. By now there will be quite a bit going
on, but you can still iterate in the Mandelbrot window
and open up folders in the Browser.
- Once the other two movies have opened, position them
in such a way that all three movies are visible along
with the FontDemo Display window, Mandelbrot, and a
Browser window. You can then explain that people are
seeing three movies, two audio sources, font cycling, and
Mandelbrot calculations, all happening
simultaneously.
- You can now throw a couple of other things into the
finale to make it even more impressive, if you have the
appropriate hardware. One is the Midi application. If you
have an external MIDI synthesizer you can throw MIDI into
the mix by playing one of the sample MIDI files included
with your BeBox. If you have a network connection, you
can use Orb to show a world-wide web page coming in
during the finale as well.
That's the basic Be demo. By far the most important thing in
giving a good demo is to have fun. Joe Palmer, our director
of hardware engineering, is a great example of this. Someone
once said that "Joe gives demos with the confidence of
someone who's never written software!"
If you have a demo version of your application, let us know.
We look forward to showing off the machine with all of the
great third-party applications that we'll see in the coming
months.
(Note: If you're not up to speed on all the Be applications
used in this demo, see "Using the Be Applications," which
starts on page 65 of the "Be User's Guide." This section
describes all of the Be applications in alphabetical order.)
BE DEVELOPER PROFILE: Communic8,
Inc.
Like virtually every Be developer, Robert Currey is
excited about the ground-floor opportunity the BeBox
presents. "Based on what I'd heard and read, I was excited
about the BeBox before I saw one. Then I saw a demo and --
wow! The responsiveness of the machine while a whole mess of
applications was stressing it out really demonstrated its
power, and that made the opportunity that much more
compelling."
Robert launched Communic8, Inc. a few months ago and is
gearing up fast to deliver communications software for the
BeBox, as well as for the Macintosh. Currently a two-person
shop in Bellevue, Washington, Robert and his partner are
having a blast working on the BeBox: "The speed is great,
the clean architecture is refreshing, and the chance to get
our hands dirty on a new hot rod makes us the envy of all
our developer friends..." Robert did his college graduate
work in the field of parallel processing and says, "The idea
of having a parallel machine of my own is very
appealing."
With the Internet becoming the worldwide communications
standard, Robert is especially excited about BeBox
connectivity. "The BeBox's Internet connectivity could prove
to be a rich source of opportunity for both your product and
mine."
Robert's first product will be Communic8 Mail, a scriptable
e-mail application that will be able to connect to a number
of different servers. In addition to standard Internet
e-mail transmissions, Communic8 Mail will also know how to
send and receive messages through America Online, through a
fax, and will even record and send voice mail. Design work
is almost done, and coding will begin soon, which puts
product availability 12 to 18 months down the road.
Following Communic8 Mail, Robert plans to develop a
scriptable PIM (personal information manager) for the BeBox.
The PIM program will be tightly integrated with Communic8
mail; for instance, when a customer's e-mail address is
updated in the PIM, Communic8 Mail will automatically use
the updated e-mail address when sending a message to the
customer from the Communic8 Mail address book.
His hopes for the BeBox? "I hope every kid in America wants
-- and gets -- one."
For more information, send Robert e-mail at Communic8 at
curreyr@halcyon.com.
Another Good Week
By Jean-Louis Gassée
Going to meet developers is always a source of trepidation
for us. They merely hold our future in their hands.
At Apple's developers' conference in San Jose, we were going
to meet some of them in person for the first time, hear what
they had to say about Developer Release 7, show the BeBox to
new ones, and schmooze with old friends. At the end of the
week we had learned more and done more than we expected.
The bad news is that each such event reminds us of the size
and complexity of the engineering, support, and marketing
task ahead of us. The good news is that we appear to be on
the right track, if we are to believe developer feedback.
Also, an intriguing idea came up in several of the many
informal discussions that make up most of the value of such
conferences. And, to cap the week, the BeBox received FCC
Class A approval: This means we can now sell BeBoxes for
commercial use. (Class B is for consumer devices. That will
come a little later, probably in July.) We can now ship
product to professionals almost anywhere, and to consumers
in countries where FCC Class A is acceptable.
At the conference, aside from getting ribbed for the
choicest bugs in DR7 (updates available on our ftp and web
sites), we got very positive feedback regarding the advances
made in both the API and the UI. In general, the Be OS is
perceived to be easy and fun to program, even by developers
for whom C++ wasn't the first choice, or love at first
sight. I don't quite know yet how to best market ease of
programming and expressive power, and I wouldn't mind
getting suggestions, but it seems we'll have to get good at
communicating these features of our product. This search for
an effective, expressive power/productivity/fun message for
Be OS programming has been made even more important by the
availability of the CodeWarrior IDE on the BeBox, our first
"tractor app" (I prefer the kinetics of the traction
metaphor to the "killer" connotations, but I'll bow to usage
if necessary.) At our developer meeting Jon Watte, the
Metrowerks Be guru, gave a rousing demonstration of the
combined power of CodeWarrior and the Be OS. He showed a
sound editor he'd written in a couple of days and, on stage,
in real time, created a new plug-in filter. Even after
figuring in Jon's masterful skills and infectious pleasure
with his craft, this demonstration makes a strong case for
programming the Be OS. And while we can't ship a Jon Watte
clone with each BeBox, we bundle a version of CodeWarrior on
the "Be OS" CD-ROM. Actually, it's the full product but for
one limitation, it builds executables limited to 64K. 64K is
a lot more than we got used to thinking: The Be OS produces
much smaller programs than what we see on older platforms.
For a reference point, most of the Be demo applications we
ship sneak under the 64K limit. Once we've cleaned up the
traces of our most embarrassing programming habits, we'll
put the source code for these applications on our Web site
and on the "Be OS" CD-ROM for your editing and edifying
pleasure. And when you're ready for the big time, $149 will
get you the "unlimited" CodeWarrior and (if you buy now)
four updates.
Another issue came up at the conference. Perhaps because of
the concentration of Apple employees and Macintosh
developers, one suggestion kept coming up in conversation.
The friendly commentators aren't satisfied with the
statement that we're committed to the PPCP/CHRP standard and
that, as soon as the unified platform materializes, the Be
OS will run on it and Be's hardware will evolve to a
compliant multiprocessor implementation. Why wait, they say.
Port the Be OS to a PowerMac or to a Power Computing Mac
clone. Some features such as multiprocessing and richer I/O
will get lost in the process, but you'll make more friends
and more people will get to see the Be OS. The idea is
intriguing, especially coming from friends in the Macintosh
community. They note Apple appeared to sanction a port of
Linux, why not the Be OS on a PowerMac while the PPCP
platform gathers esteem? The technical details require much
thought -- how to get the information needed to map
ourselves to PowerMac hardware. And, assuming the PowerMac
port gets done, what are the marketing consequences?
Meaning, if we can be forgiven for bringing up such a
materialistic issue, how do we best use a PowerMac port to
make our developers and ourselves more successful? An
intriguing suggestion capping an interesting week.
Be Demo Tour: Be in Europe
Be's European team has been busy. Starting from their base
in Paris, Jean Calmon, Christophe Droulers, and
Georges-Edouard Beranger have taken the BeBox demo on the
road. They have been keeping us informed on the reaction to
the road trips, as accounted below:
Helsinki, April 12
Osma Ahvenlampi and Janne Kalliola took us on a tour of the
HUT (Helsinki University of Technology) where we were to
give the demo. Posters of the Be presentation could be seen
everywhere.
The night before the demo, we went for a "sauna evening," a
normal way to discuss business in Finland. We spent almost
two hours talking about the BeBox, and then decided to have
an unplanned demonstration of DR7 just next to the sauna --
we powered up the BeBox right there in the hot steam. This
was the "hottest" part of our tour in Finland: Twelve geeks,
clad only on towels, looking closely at the screen and
watching all the changes. A couple of fellows opened up the
box and started poking around, already planning their
modifications.
The next day, over 170 students crammed into a HUT lecture
room for the demo. More than half the audience owned two or
more computers -- we were in the right place. A lot of them
were part of the Amiga and UNIX/Linux communities; and
almost all were disappointed (to put it politely) with
Windows 95.
After a half-hour slide presentation of Be and the BeBox
architecture, Georges-Edouard gave a 20 minute demo of the
box. He was met with smiles and great applause at the
finale. Then we had a Q and A session with good questions
about MPEG, licensing, distribution, pricing, and so on.
These folks were clearly serious about developing
applications.
We spent another three hours meeting informally with members
of the audience, and answered tons of questions regarding
hardware (604, parallel processing, GeekPort(TM), MIDI, and
so on) and software (the kits and media synchronization).
After being told that the BeBox had the Metrowerks IDE
built-in, one fellow started to write and compile an
application right there.
Paris, April 16
After our Finnish trip we returned to France for a
presentation at the EFREI (French High School of Electronics
and Computing), where 800 students are working to get their
electrical or computing certificate. The presentation took
place in a lecture hall with almost 200 people -- that's a
quarter of the school! Again, almost everyone owned a
computer, and most were UNIX/Linux users.
After a short discussion of the Be project, structure, and
products, Georges-Edouard gave an extended demonstration of
the BeBox. The audience jumped to their feet at the end;
they loved it! The entire presentation was planned to take
two hours ... we stayed there for nearly five, giving side
demonstrations of the Be IDE, BeBounce, Flight (which they
really appreciated), and everything we could show on
DR7.
By the time we got back to our offices, we already had
e-mail with praise for the demo, requests for demos at other
universities and high schools -- and some commitments to buy
BeBoxes.
Linkoping, Sweden, May 9
Linkoping is the site of the prestigious Computer Science
University in Sweden. The 4500 students use 200
SparcStations, massive parallel computers, and even the most
powerful Cray Computer in Northern Europe. (Part of the
campus was built during the cold war; the buildings were
designed to be used as hangars if necessary!)
There is a 500-member "geek club" there called Lysator
(http://www.lysator.liu.se/).
As in Finland, the Amiga is their ideal. Daniel Helmers did
a great job preparing for our presentation by putting up
yellow posters everywhere in the University, and even
created a special mailbox to welcome and help visitors to
the demo.
The demonstration took place in a lecture hall with 190
seats ... more than 320 people showed up. Again, the demo
was met with tremendous applause. They loved the multiple
workspaces with their dynamic capabilities (moving the
BeLogo movie through different depths and resolutions).
The Q and A session lasted for more than an hour and a half,
with questions about multiple user support, remote login,
object request brokers, and object models to help support
other languages. We then spent another hour talking
one-on-one with the students. All the developer forms
disappeared in a matter of seconds.
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