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And now, back to the Universal Rich Client discussion
By Andrew Pollack on 10/18/2004 at 09:29 AM EDTI think if you look through this presentation document you'll see why I'm so excited.
Here's some highlights:
1. There is a huge unserved market of people who used to use greenscreen terminals and now use bad web applications or really bad customer programs. The airline ticket desk people, back tellers, and thousands of customer service reps all over are among them. Workplace, running on Universal Rich Client serves them very well. These are, in many cases, shops that are just not going to use Domino. Period.
2. Lotus Domino / Notes is on an equal footing in this client with the Lotus Workplace client. They use the term "Plug in" but that's just bad language, not an accurate description from a marketing sense. The "Eclipse Framework" is what the rich client sits on. That part is open sourced. Sitting on that are a set of services that are IBM specific, which make it the "IBM Workplace Rich Client" (aka Universal Rich Client). Notice no "Lotus" in that part of the name? The Lotus Part comes next. Sitting on top of the IBM Workplace Rich Client (IWCT-RE = IBM Workplace Client Technology - Rich Edition) are applications. One of those client applications is "IBM Lotus Workplace" and another is "IBM Lotus Notes". Now, workplace is of course more tied into the eclipse framework than is Notes, because it was written for that purpose -- but Lotus Notes is fully operational and on equal footing within the IWCT-RE platform.
3. The Notes 8 client -- indeed the IWCT-RE "Notes Plug-In" for IWCT-RE 2.5 -- will be a truly usable and workable Notes client. Why? Its the same core code. Most of the client code doesn't change at all. Starting in Notes 7 beta M2, the client DLLs contains the necessary features to allow the IWCT-RE plug-in to "RE-PARENT" the actual core code dialogs and desktop and other UI stuff into the right panels of the IWCT-RE platform. That means you have a TRUE Lotus Notes client running in there. A little bird told me that even your old LSX's should still work -- but don't bet the farm on it because nobody knows for sure yet on that one.
The stated goal, publically, for the 2.5 version of IWCT-RE is that if you've got IWCT-RE on the machine and also have Notes 7 beta m2 more later, You should -- if you want -- never have to load your Notes Client outside of IWCT-RE unless you want to. Designer and Admin Clients are still distinct however.
It looks to me like the Notes 8 Rich Client version is going to rock.
Later today or tomorrow, I'll talk about why this is so cool for ISV's and high-end developers!
Thanks for your work in pubishing your research and thoughts. ND8, is going to
be pretty cool.
About the Designer and Admin clinets, do you think they will go the way of
WebSphere Application Developer?
http://www-306.ibm.com/software/awdtools/developer/application/index.html
I think it won't be too long before we have the Rational Appication Developer
for Workplace (or at least it's plugin for RAD).
--Mac
1) No stand alone Notes Client in version 8.
2) Notes 8 client module will have to have one or more extra applications to be
installed to work. I think this will be a negative factor for large
corporations when deciding whether or not to upgrade to Lotus Notes v8. It
might even have an impact on upgrading to Notes v7. I think IBM are gambling
that Eclipse will already be installed on all machines which I think is very
naive.
2) Notes client will work via a variety of integrated layers, which can only:
i) introduce more bugs through complexity
ii) require more expertise in more technology layers to develop and debug
applications.
iii) require more expert support personnel and users instead of simpler support
and training.
iv) probably slow down application speed or require upgrade of PC specs.
I think the future of Notes applications is the web browser and Lotus Notes
should concentrate on producing better web interfaces to views and forms rather
than trying to promote websphere by trying to move developers and users to
Eclipse & Workplace.
I am interested in any comments as i know many other people feel the same way
as me.
-Adam
PS Please consider removing the horizontal lines in your pdf as they take ages
to display. ;)
PPS Do not chastise me for my website http://www.NotesNinjas.com as it is in
need of redevelopment, I have been to busy to do it. ;)
First, the 2.5 workplace rich client supports notes as a plug in. The Notes 8
client will be a standalone client deployed without a workplace server being
required. I don't think its been determined if that means they'll build some
of the workplace smarts into the Domino server, making a deployment package, or
whatever. Its still some time away, and I'd imagine it will take time to
determine the acceptance of both IBM and Lotus Workplace in the mean time.
Key to the whole thing though, is that very existance of the Rich Client for
IBM Workplace is representative of the recognition that a web browser along is
insufficient for producing a good working environment for complex applications
-- as you've no doubt discovered on your own site.
btw: This site is entirely in Lotus Domino without any add-ons.
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Regards,
Bruce