Boston '98
by M. Fox
We developed Mumps applications in house in the late 1980’s to run our branch network of 20 Builders Merchants stores, handling all commercial aspects of the business from purchase ordering to management reporting. We developed our applications in DataTree Mumps to run on standalone PC’s with 12 to 16 dumb terminals hanging off each PC.
The last US Mumps conference I attended was Atlanta in 1987, a much bigger affair than Boston 98 with many more attendees and a vibrant trade show.
The big talking point in Boston was of course the acquisition of Micronetics by InterSystems, many Mumps Enthusiasts and Micronetics VARs were very unhappy. (especially developers who used MSM-Workstation, the MWAPI based product). From my point of view a strong InterSystems with a progressive Mumps based platform is good news, we have spend 10 years developing our applications, we need a growth path, we need Cache. My only concern is that InterSystems will rise prices to unacceptable levels, I hope that InterSystems use the traditional Mumps keen price/performance to gain market share.
Getting on the real content of the Conference, the Web and Object Technology were hot topics. Object Technology has been around for years and there was much academic discussion about Mumps & Objects, now with Cache there is a mainstream M based system that is Object enabled. The Web, Microsoft Applications and browser interfaces to legacy systems are all the driving growth in object technology.
The M Conference in Boston was part of DCI’s Database & Client Server World, it was heartening to see the size, presentation and professionalism of the Intersystem stand in the main exhibition hall. There was no mention of M or Mumps at the InterSystems exhibit, Cache was splashed all over the stand, I even watched the audio visual, again no mention of M or Mumps. InterSystems are serious about selling Cache to non Mumps customers, Cache will be a mainstream product. An increase the Cache customer base is good news for users like us who have invested heavily in mumps applications and what to carry those applications forward into the world of client server, object technology, GUI, Web, etc.
I went to MUG in Atlanta in 1987 and was impressed enough to make Mumps our strategic development platform, I went to Boston in 1998 and I am impressed enough to make Cache our strategic development platform for the next 10 years. Cache is our database of choice for our current applications, new applications will utilize the Cache database but could be programmed in Mumps, Cache Objects, Java or Visual Basic, in an object world it doesn’t matter.
Last but not least the M Technology Association Staff were kind, professional and friendly.
