[Commentary] Servoy World 2008 Wrap Up

[image unavailable: Picture_3]Servoy World 2008 is over. Whew. One more day of that and my head would have exploded. My brain was not made for absorbing tons of Servoy information, unloading tons of Servoy information (Troy and I did two sessions and two full days of teaching), and having Bob Cusick shout full voice six inches from my right ear every hand at the poker tournament (I blame him for going out early). Nothing was nicer last night than my own bed, a clean house and tomatoes from my garden. (Today I'm trying to see how long I can ignore the lawn that needs mowing and a new leaky water pipe.) Now if only my bathtub was the size of a small swimming pool and had water jets that can melt muscles. I'll take a golf course in my back yard while I'm dreaming.

I learned a lot this year at Servoy World. I went in with a list of things to figure out from the various sessions and Servoy engineers and was not disappointed. Thanks Gregg Pierce, Nicola Gervasi, Jan Blok, Paul Bakker, Scott Buttler, Darren Clarke, the Matt and James duo, etc. I had a proud moment when one of our questions was "difficult" enough to get Jan and Paul to both pull out their laptops and gather around in an impromptu huddle session. As it turned out, the answer was a "simple" addition to the iForm API -- which Jan did right there on the spot ("next release David"). How many tool vendors can you walk right up to the CTO, ask him a question, and get the answer implemented right there in front of you?

In case you didn't hear that, let me ask that question again LOUDER. How many tool vendors can you walk right up to the CTO, ask him a question, and get the answer implemented right there in front of you?!? If you just laughed hysterically (the same laugh you would use upon getting a call from the emergency room informing you that your kid jumped off a rooftop using an umbrella as a parachute), then maybe you should check out Servoy.

In addition to seeing all my old favorite people (Marcel, Harjo, Karel...), I had the opportunity put faces with the new names. Nothing like having a mailing list for the past year and then getting to finally meet the people who have been a major part of getting a new product out the door. For some reason, I was expecting horns growing out of heads but you guys all look surprisingly normal.

Speaking of which -- our new product...the first ever commercial frameworks for Servoy...the greatest time saving tool since spam in a can (tastes just as good) -- was announced at the keynote by Jan Aleman as "Servoy for Servoy". I'll take that as high praise. More news on the status of that project coming up this week.

Here's a question: who isn't completely stunned by the news that Servoy 4.1 will have object instantiation at runtime? This is crazy powerful stuff. I'm still trying to get my head around all the possibilities. I think we'll start by creating a user definable report generator module to include in our frameworks. Which will only get cooler when drag and drop hits with 4.2.

Finally, I made it out of Vegas having only lost $200 at the poker tables (I couldn't bring myself to sit next to the old overweight chain smoking ladies at the penny slot machines). Unfortunately my gambling career lasted all of 30 minutes so I think I'll be sticking with Servoy development a little longer.

Thanks Servoy (most especially Brenda and Carla) for a great conference. Looking forward to next year in Europe somewhere. I haven't been to Spain so my vote is for Barcelona. Actually, any place where the surgical implants aren't a danger to taking the head off my shoulders would be good.