WWDC in Decline? I don't think so



I know I'm coming late to the party, and that Scott Stevenson has already delivered the definitive come-back (and more politely and high-roaded than I'm afraid that I will be), but I feel I must respond to Matt Neuburg's recent piece on WWDC 2006. Having attended every WWDC since 1986, with the exception of 1989 (that's 20 for those keeping score at home), I believe I am qualified to evaluate WWDCs on a comparative basis.

So, let's get started with Matt's comments. Here's where he starts the slam:

It's distressing, therefore, to see how WWDC has become more and more unpleasant for the attendees each year. Each year we say to each other, "Wow, it's really gone downhill, but at least it couldn't possibly get any worse," and each year it gets worse.

From this you might get the impression that all the developers are standing around WWDC, shaking their heads and bemoaning the state of things. Now, I must be hanging with the wrong class of people or something, but this is not what I heard this year, or any year recently. There were some downhill years, but they are in the long past.

The zenith in recent years was the 2003 WWDC. Apple had moved the venue from the isolated, unpleasant San Jose McEnery Convention Center to the west wing of the Moscone Center in wonderful downtown San Francisco. Attendees were given a superb portfolio bag that I still use, a copy of the currently shipping operating system, and a major piece of hardware (an iSight!). The food was terrific (excellent hot breakfasts and lunches), and between talks we were plied with free juices and fruit, and of course plenty of high-quality coffee.

Well, 2003 was nice, but it was not the zenith. I liked the San Jose convention center! It's not unpleasant at all. And after over a decade of WWDCs, it felt like home. A nice bonus was being able to stay in the Hilton, physically attached to the center. No time at all to get to sessions, and easy to drop something off in the room rather than carrying it around all day. And if you couldn't stay in the Hilton, the hotels in San Jose are reasonably priced. And it's sure a lot shorter to Cupertino on Bash night. I love San Francisco, but San Jose wasn't bad.

I can't disagree with the bag, though I prefer (and use) 2005's backpack. And the iSight was most welcome. I was very glad to get it. The food was as noted, and the Jamba Juice (which had also been at San Jose) and coffee (though I don't drink coffee and so can offer no valid comment on the state of coffee in any year). But since Matt brings up snacks later, I must comment on the quality of snacks in 2003. Yes, there was fruit, but none of the geek food I had been accustomed to in previous years. No chips, no chocolate. All disgustingly healthy. The pizza on movie night that year, no matter what its quality, was scant in quantity. I'm not even sure if I got any! I considered it a drop off in quality, and said so.

This year, on the other hand, the freebies were the cheapest portfolio bag I've ever seen (flimsy, no padding, few compartments, bad zippers, strap attached in a silly place)

OK. not a great bag, but tolerable. Matt is evidently forgetting the years when we got book bags, some better, some worse.

a crummy travel mug,

It's a very nice travel mug, and nicer than last year's sport bottle (no mug or bottle of any kind in 2003, by the way).

and a t-shirt with incorrect Latin on it. (OK, so I spent many years teaching Latin; they could have asked me.)

What is on the shirt is a play on Julius Caesar's well known phrase "Veni, Vidi, Vici"; "I came, I saw, I conquered." The shirt says "Veni, Vidi, Codi". Clearly, "Codi" is not Latin for "I coded." But there is no authentic Latin for "I coded." I'm sure a Latin scholar like Matt could come up with something (I only had 2 years of high school Latin, myself), but it would be a neologism that would be obscure to the point of no one understanding it.

No hardware

The only time I ever left WWDC with hardware was in 2003. True, they gave away Powerbooks one year (1999?) and door prizes, including hardware, another (2000?), but I didn't take any home.

no currently shipping software.

I'm always vaguely disappointed to be given already shipping software at WWDC. I mean, I already have it. What's cool about that? The exception, of course, was the release of System 7 in 1991. Shipped at WWDC.

Lunches were plastic salad and plastic sandwiches in plastic containers

There were hot lunches available on Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday, I was happy to get a box lunch (that I thought tasted pretty good) to go to an interesting lunch-time session. And the dessert that came in Thursday's box I thought was excellent. De gustibus non disputandum est, but it is dishonest to say that there were no hot lunches.

breakfast was nearly non-existent.

I prefer cereal for breakfast myself, but there were mass quantities of bagels, croissants, danishes and scones. And all fresh. Evidently I have missed hot breakfasts in past years somehow. I honestly don't remember any, though there were some years in San Jose when cereal was available.

Snacks between talks were dried-up pastry.

I'm beginning to think that Matt and I weren't in the same place. Snacks between morning sessions were indeed the left-overs from the breakfast offerings, and may have been dried out in that time. But afternoon snacks consisted of chips, candy bars, and freshly baked cookies. Not the same thing every day, but I got Twix, Butterfingers, and Ghirardelli bars.

One evening there was something that pretended to be pizza; it was so bad that people were literally gasping in disbelief.

I've had worse. No matter what the quality, it didn't seem to stop folks from sucking it up as soon as it was brought out. At least they didn't run out this year.

And attendees were herded into lecture rooms by uniformed characters we came to call "seat Nazis," yelling at us to move forward and inward rather than sitting where we preferred.

Actually, these folks, as annoying as they were, appeared to me to be retired teachers and the like. They strongly encouraged people to move up and forward, but you could ignore them safely. Not like they were jack-booted thugs who picked you up by the scruff of the neck and shoved you into another seat. And when you're trying to cram a few hundred people into a room that holds even that same few hundred, someone's not going to get to sit where they prefer.

I've heard this line about Apple not honoring its developers before. And conditions are much better now than they were the first time I heard it.

Was WWDC 2006 perfect? Of course not. Every year something could be better. But it's still the best place to get information on Apple's future direction, help for your coding should you need it, and a much needed Mac recharge. I plan on keeping my streak going as long as I can.

Posted: Sat - September 2, 2006 at 05:57 PM          

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