Q: Kurt, I understand you are Alpha Software Inc. newest employee. Let me first extend a warm Alpha Community welcome you and your family.

Thank you Jim! I'm happy to be here and am enjoying getting to know my new co-workers and the Alpha community as well.

Q: Can you tell us what your job title/description with Alpha Software is and what you anticipate being involved with?

My job title is Senior Software Engineer. I have already been involved in discussions concerning ActiveX and Client/Server support, as well as some development work and hope to contribute in those areas and any other that I can.

Q: I've got to ask what you see as your strengths and what this will mean to Alpha Five?

While it is hard to quantify, I believe that one of my key strengths is the simple fact that I have developed business applications of all sizes for a very long time. I've seen the hype and the reality of software development and have a real passion for seeing business applications that are easy to build and solve business problems, not just technical ones. Don't get me wrong. I love to explore technical problems as much as the next guy, maybe more! But, I believe, especially during the past few years, jargon and overblown optimism have distracted software vendors and their customers from the real challenge, implementing systems that can be leveraged by a business for productivity and profitability.

On the technical side, my experience with ActiveX, databases and the languages of application development seems like a strong fit with the goals that Selwyn and Richard Rabins have discussed. I hope that my experience as an architect and implementer can contribute to what is already a strong start in the areas of ActiveX and Client/Server by the Alpha software development team.

Q: Kurt can you tell us a little about your formal training?

Sure Jim. Like so many others, I didn't start out to be a software developer. My early academic experience was varied. After a short time as a music major, I earned my undergraduate degree in Psychology. In 1980 I completed a Master's degree in Education in counseling. After moving into software development in the early 1980s, I earned a Master's degree in Computer Science in 1990 from Boston University's Metropolitan College.

Q: Although new to Alpha Software, you are not new to the software development business. I understand that you have spent six years as a developer of PowerBuilder from Sybase Software. Can you tell us a little about your time with Sybase?

PowerSoft (later acquired by Sybase) provided a wonderful opportunity to experience a start-up environment. As I'm sure you know, Mitchell Kertzman and David Dewan founded Computer Solutions as an MRP (Material Requirements Planning) provider. They responded to the move to windowing systems in the late 1980s and brought in David Litwack, formerly of Cullinet Software, to create a tool to move the MRP product to a GUI environment. When Windows beat out OS/2 for dominance, PowerBuilder became not only an in-house tool, but a product desperately needed by Fortune 500 companies, whose developers knew the COBOL programming language, but not C.

My tenure at PowerSoft began in 1991 just after the release of the first version of PowerBuilder. I joined the company mainly because I was managing a group of developers who needed such a tool, and saw its potential. For the first year, I taught customers how to use PowerBuilder. The next year I joined the core development team of seven and created the business graphics engine, which shipped as part of release 3.0 of PowerBuilder.

When Microsoft announced OLE/2 (now part of ActiveX), I had the opportunity to learn the technology and create and implement the architecture for integrating embedding, linking and automation into PowerBuilder.

After these experiences I spent a release managing the compiler, languages and OLE team (now up to seven developers itself) and then later took on the title of Director of R&D for the now forty-five member programming staff. PowerSoft had been acquired by Sybase in 1995. I left Sybase in 1997 to work independently, providing consulting and contracting services, and to continue exploring my passion, rationalizing the process of developing software.

Q: Do you know the approximate size of the installed PowerBuilder user base is?

Not at this time. I believe at the peak, there were in excess of 150,000 licenses, but there are probably better sources.

Q: When you went independent, I assume that you used PowerBuilder to develop business solutions for your clients?

Yes, in some cases. My time was split between C++ tools and related software and PowerBuilder applications. In the case of PowerBuilder applications, the complexity of database applications made it easy for inexperienced developers to write a lot of software that they didn't know how to maintain. I was often able to help them to reduce the size of the software base and get control of their applications by teaching them to apply good techniques for re-use; in the jargon, "object-oriented".

Q: Kurt, what do you mean by 'rationalizing the process of developing software'?

Rationalizing the process of developing software amounts to simply letting business people describe business needs without being buried in the myriad of implementation details required to build a robust application. When some M.I.T. genius invents the next great paradigm of computing, the business requirements shouldn't have to be re-stated, only the implementation needs to change. In the same way, if the business need changes, it should not be necessary to reverse engineer the application to implement those changes.

One of things that I find intriguing about Alpha Five is that it makes it easy to describe an application, often without writing any software. When processes or rules change, it is simple to change the definition, again, without coding changes.

Q: I think I can hear a cheer from the Alpha Community. Alpha Software has always been about solutions that work in the real world for 'real' users! We hear about the run everywhere Java, SOAP, CORBA, Software as a Service, ActiveX, OLE DB, XML, and now .Net as well as many other acronyms. About the time you think you have figured out one, something 'new' to save the software world appears on the horizon. Polish up your crystal ball Kurt, and tell us what you think the 'real' software technology on the horizon is?

I think we could all use a crystal ball right now, but there are some key concerns that are affecting business, and that I believe will increasingly be the focus of the software industry.

Yes, we will have more speech enabled applications with intelligent agents performing tasks and keeping us company, and with lots of high definition audio and video, but the question "When?" is rapidly being replaced by "Why?" Return-on-investment is back in vogue. Customers need to be clear about what they need and want, but vendors are really starting to listen now!

So there won't be any new acronyms? Don't you believe it!!!

Q: Were you familiar at all with Alpha Software's products before coming on board?

I recognized the name, but must confess that I had no experience with the product. It was a very pleasant surprise!

Q: IMHO Alpha Five is a large and ambitious product. With the recent release of version 5, Alpha Five Web Application Server in the wings, and Alpha Five version 6 under active development. Have you had time to get familiar with Alpha Five?

What I have worked with so far is nothing short of exciting! There are many features in the product that I would love to have had in PowerBuilder. Personally, I am very pleased to see the product being developed using its own XBasic and XDialog! We often discussed at PowerSoft/Sybase whether PowerBuilder could be written in PowerBuilder and the repeated consensus was, "Well… not yet!" Seeing the Alpha Five development team take advantage of the language and features available to customers is very encouraging.

Q: I know that you are very new to Alpha Software, but can you compare the corporate world of Alpha Software with Sybase?

Sybase was a startup at one time. By the time of the acquisition of PowerSoft, it had grown large. To me large means lots of meetings to discuss setting up committees to discuss issues. You get the idea. As a developer, I found myself further and further from the customer. In one case, for example, I found out about a bug six months after it was reported. It took ten minutes to fix! If I had only known about it sooner…

Alpha Software appears to be deliberately nimble and customer focused. From talking to Richard and Selwyn Rabins, this is no accident. They have had the large company experiences as well. Both of them made it clear to me that they want to manage growth and continue to deliver the features that their customers need and will really put to good use, and they want to do it in a timely manner.

Q: Can you contrast PowerBuilder and Alpha Five version 5 for us? What is similar, and what is different?

Frankly, the history of each product is different, and therefore the goals as well. PowerBuilder was introduced to address to the need and market opportunity for an easy Windows development tool coupled with support for the emerging of Client/Server databases. The core feature of the product is the DataWindow, a description of how data would be retrieved from the SQL database and how it would be displayed and later updated.

If you look at the typical PowerBuilder application, the objects are "Windows" objects as opposed to the application objects we see in Alpha Five. In PowerBuilder release 1.0, we had five development entities: Applications, Windows, Menus, DataWindows, and Functions. Most of those objects related directly to the windows environment and proved difficult to move to the Web later on. Objects were added later to support a more "object oriented" approach, but I don't believe the business requirements were ever fully represented, something left to tools like Rational Software's Rational Rose.

Alpha Five, from what I can see, has a far richer description of the rules and edit requirements and the links between business entities. It is a product not limited to "hard core" developers and does not have the steep learning curve PowerBuilder became known for. I would get in over my depth fairly quickly here, but a practical example of easy to use features is the Alpha Five field rules. This functionality requires a good deal of PowerScript coding in PowerBuilder to get right.

Q: Let's talk a little philosophy Kurt. Alpha Five is a very ambitious product that puts tremendous power into the hands of the everyday database developer. It also offers a rich and complete scripting language in Xbasic and Xdialog. Now with Alpha Five WAS (Web Application Server) in late development and version 6 in development, it will cover all the bases from a desktop environment, a true client/server web based environment, to a front end application development platform linking to cooperate backend servers. Will you and the Alpha Five team be able to put all this functionality together and still allow the small business owner to create his own business solutions?

You have certainly described the challenge well! Making our customers productive means, as I see it, letting them focus on describing what they want and not spending hours fussing with it trying to make it work. As with any successful project, continuing to deliver that level of usability will require that we listen to our customers, not just actively, but aggressively. From what I have seen so far, this is the cornerstone of Alpha Software's success. This is the approach I expect that we will continue to see in all present and future development.

Q: Have you had the time to play with Alpha Five's scripting language, Xbasic?

I've only begun to explore the product. There is a lot here!

Q: XDialog is one of my favorite new 'toys'. I certainly have not mastered it, but I am continually impressed with the brevity of code that produces such rich user interface dialog boxes. Can you give us your thoughts on XDialog and compare it to some of the alternatives that you have run into in your work?

One of the chronic complaints I hear about dialog tools is that they break the description of the display and the behavior down into little pieces and make it difficult to see the dialog as a whole. XDialog is concise, and the handler functions are accessible in the code as well.

As you might guess, I am not a big fan of tools that use one-way wizards to create dialogs. They create a lot of code that you then have to decipher to make small changes to. As a C/C++ developer, I stopped using those tools for anything but a first approximation, because they were too tedious to use.

XDialog was created, as I understand it, out of a need to describe a dialog and not have to wait for a C coder to create the implementation. This is classic Alpha Five! If I can provide the description for the dialog, why can't the product read my description and create the same Window's dialog a programmer would have? It does. Makes sense to me!

Q: Enough technical questions, let's talk about having fun. Every now and then you have got to get out from behind the computer screen. Kurt, do you have any hobbies or avocations?

Too many to be good at any one I'm afraid. I enjoy singing and playing the guitar, studying foreign languages, electronics and mathematics, and simple woodworking and shop projects. I often forget to list working with computers as a hobby. It was a hobby before it was a profession. I have several systems running at home using Windows, Linux and Solaris. There is a lot to know, and I enjoy the process of understanding new technology

Q: Guitar and singing………… how about it, a debut at the upcoming Alpha Conference?

There's a very good reason software is my day job… <g>

Q: Kurt, I have been playing around with Linux a little. Although it appears to be gaining some ground in the server market, do you think it will ever be a threat to the Windows dominance on the desktop?

As you said, and I agree, the server market is a more likely play for Linux in the near future. Microsoft's servers have increased in complexity, and the learning curve for maintaining a production server is approaching if not eclipsing that of setting up a Linux environment. The cost certainly is high!

Although Linux is cheap and readily available, it is still difficult to configure and install software, despite some significant progress. Worse than that, it is perceived as "geeky" and unstable, although I haven't found it to be unstable. Until those perceptions are addressed and there is a significant base of business software, I don't expect to see Linux on most desk tops.

Q: Kurt, did you have to re-locate when you came on board with Alpha Software?

Fortunately, no. I have been in the Boston area for about twenty-five years, both on the South Shore and now, west of the city. Burlington is where PowerSoft was originally based, so this is familiar territory.

Q: Do you have a family?

I have three children. Sarah age 23 is following her life dream of studying Egyptian archaeology at the American University at Cairo. In addition to her degree this year, she is bringing home her Egyptian husband Mostafa. We have enjoyed having him here for several visits already and look forward to having them both here in the states during this turbulent time. Elyse, age 12 (the future chef) and her twin Kenny (the Red Sox fanatic) are typical seventh graders.

My wife Cheryl (a gifted artist and miniaturist) has two children; Ethan age 11 (obsessed with video games and drawing) and Samantha age 9 (who creates elaborate play sets).

This all makes for a busy household when everyone is there. We enjoy an annual camping trip where the kids and dad compete to see who can catch the most fish.

Q: I assume that 'miniaturist' means creating small things. Can you elaborate on this?

You really have to see it to believe it. She will take a tack and turn it into a candlestick. A piece of string becomes a coil of rope or a garden hose. Once these common items are put into the context of a miniature room or scene, you forget what they really are.

Q: What do you suppose she could do with some Access CD's ?

Gee, I don't know… but she loves working with cast offs! There are sure to be lots of them around…