Smalltalk Digest: July Edition
Welcome to the July 2019 edition of the Cincom Smalltalk™ Digest. In this exciting edition, we will talk about the following:
- Are We Always Marketing and Selling?
- What Extra Value Does a Cincom Smalltalk Customer Receive by Using Cincom SupportWeb®?
- Are You Ready to Take Your Business to the Next Level?
- Celebrating the Birth of Cincom Smalltalk, Part 3
- How to Unlock One of the Most Powerful Features of Smalltalk
- What Upcoming Speaking Engagements Does the Cincom Smalltalk Team Have?
- What Other Networking Opportunities Are Coming Up?
- Helpful Customer Links and Information
- Popular Product Resources
Are We Always Marketing and Selling?
Check out this excerpt from the most recent blog post from Jeremy Jordan, the Sr. Marketing Manager for Cincom Smalltalk:
Sales and Marketing: two extremely important words to some, but not as important to others. However, whether we know it or not, each of us are always selling and marketing.
Like it or not, we are all in Sales and Marketing … even if it’s selling and marketing OURSELVES! If you were at an interview and had to sell yourself, what marketable qualities do you have? Do you always come across as negative or complaining? If that’s your presence on social media, do you think someone would want to hire you as a full-time engineer? What about as a consultant? Would they even want to do business with you?
Be mindful! You never know who’s watching you and listening to what you say publicly. For example, a new person who is quietly following you or others in the community might see constant bickering or complaining. Instead of being drawn to the benefits and joys of Smalltalk, those insults may push them towards Ruby, Dart or Rust … anywhere but Smalltalk! But, let’s hit closer to home. What about a potential employer? If a prospective employer is looking for someone to lead their development team or be a lead developer, a sales engineer or a new colleague to represent their company with Smalltalk, would they see a team player if they look at your social profile? This is definitely something to consider and think about.
If you truly love Smalltalk, you’ll want eager, positive, enthusiastic people joining your community … OUR community! Start sharing your passion. Start talking up all the awesome things being done with Smalltalk. Be positive, informative and inviting. Share those amazing facts, just not insults. Remember, those little digs can create giant, gaping holes that may not ever be able to be repaired.
You never know who is watching you.
- To read the post in its entirety (and learn some fun trivia about Jeremy and his Cincom Smalltalk colleagues), click here.
What Extra Value Does a Cincom Smalltalk Customer Receive by Using Cincom SupportWeb?
We loving sharing and reminding our users about the benefits of being a Cincom Smalltalk customer. Over the coming months, we will be looking more closely at some of these valuable benefits.
One of those is having the ability to use Cincom SupportWeb to solve issues that may come up using our products. But, do you know about the extra value available to you through SupportWeb? In this insightful video, listen to Kimberly Thomas, the Director of Global Product Support, explain in detail three additional tools available in SupportWeb that you may not have known about. Kimberly will discuss:
- Announcements – monthly technical status reports, new services and offerings.
- Status of cases – a quick way to see your open and closed cases, as well as solutions that may already be available to you.
- Test cases – helps Cincom Support re-create your problem in our own environment and help test future releases.
To see more details, watch this video here:
BONUS: For customers who haven’t visited SupportWeb lately, there’s a new look and feel that makes it easier to navigate and find what you are looking for. Here are some helpful instructions from Kimberly on how you can access these valuable tools on the Cincom Systems, Inc. website:
Are You Ready to Take Your Business to the Next Level?
So maybe you aren’t a Cincom Smalltalk customer but you want to take advantage of SupportWeb and other customer benefits. What do you do?
Try the REV Program!
Since starting this program, we’ve been able to assist many Smalltalk users to better understand their markets and their audiences, how to present to their prospects, and so much more.
The REV program is an opportunity for YOU to take your hobby to the next level … create your own business.
We created this program for you to become a customer. What does it mean to be a customer? As a Cincom Smalltalk customer, you receive:
- The full product
- Full support for the product
- An opportunity to join the Developer Program to get early beta releases of our product to see where we are taking it and comment to help us build out the future of commercial Smalltalk
- An opportunity to join the Partner Promotion Program to promote your application, help you develop the right markets or find the right space to promote what you have been working on.
This quick, easy way to partner with us and grow your business only costs $500 and is a great investment that could pay big dividends as you grow your business. Don’t let another day go by. Let’s grow your business together and take your passion to the next level.
Celebrating the Birth of Cincom Smalltalk, Part 3
Do you remember 1999? Were you still in grade school? College? As you reflect back to your personal journey in 1999, let us take you on a journey of two products that eventually found their way to the doorstep of Cincom Systems, Inc.
Soon, we will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of Cincom Smalltalk here at Cincom. Although our beloved object-oriented programming language has been around since before 1970, it wasn’t until late 1999 that Cincom brought ObjectStudio and VisualWorks together under the umbrella of Cincom Smalltalk. You can read more about the early years of Smalltalk and the dramatic origin of ObjectStudio in previous months’ editions of the Cincom Smalltalk Digest.
The Cincom Years
During the late 1980s to mid-1990s, Smalltalk environments—including support, training and add-ons—were sold by at least three companies: ParcPlace Systems, Digitalk and Enfin Software Corp. ParcPlace Systems focused on the Unix/Sun Microsystems market, while Digitalk emphasized Intel-based PCs running either Microsoft Windows or IBM’s OS/2.
Like Digitalk’s offering, Enfin ran on Windows and OS/2, but in contrast to the others, it was very commercially focused. Enfin had great database and mainframe connectivity and GUI design abilities, but did not have the polished class library and virtual machine of ParcPlace or Digitalk. In 1992, Enfin was acquired by Easel Corp, the maker of the 4GL Easel Workbench.
IBM, having initially supported both Digitalk and Enfin in different markets, entered the market with a Smalltalk product in 1993 called VisualAge/Smalltalk.
Enfin, renamed ObjectStudio, was acquired from Easel by Vmark Software Inc. of Westborough, Massachusetts in 1995. Cincom Systems, Inc. made ObjectStudio Smalltalk a component of its Total FrameWork product, and in 1996, VMark and Cincom Systems created a joint venture for ObjectStudio development, called CinMark. CinMark had engineering based in Stuttgart, Germany, and support based in the US. In 1997, Cincom acquired full ownership of ObjectStudio and moved development back to the US.
In 1995, ParcPlace and Digitalk merged into ParcPlace-Digitalk and then rebranded in 1997 as ObjectShare. The merged company struggled to find a way to combine the two products and organizations. By 1999, ObjectShare sold VisualWorks to Cincom.
How to Unlock One of the Most Powerful Features of Smalltalk
Custom, interactive views are one of the most powerful features of Smalltalk. This work can be tricky, but it is easy once you have the pattern and an example.
The purpose of the Hidden Gems Screencast is to give developers who use Cincom Smalltalk some valuable insight into the useful abilities of the products that may not be obvious. In this month’s new screencast, Arden Thomas, the Cincom Smalltalk Product Manager, gives you the pattern for custom, interactive views, and walks you through an example. This Hidden Gem also discusses and demonstrates how the MVC pattern has evolved in Cincom Smalltalk.
We welcome any questions, comments and feedback!
What Upcoming Speaking Engagements Does the Cincom Smalltalk Team Have?
The Cincom Smalltalk team has two speaking engagements coming up.
The first meetup is the Seattle Software Crafters in Seattle, WA. This group is a diverse community of software professionals who are passionate about making great software together. They are committed to continuously learning better ways of producing software, sharing with and learning from each other and setting the standard for ethics, quality and mutual respect for all. This meetup will be this Thursday, July 25, and Carl Gundel, a Cincom engineer, will join Suzanne to present and engage with these professionals. Carl will introduce Cincom Smalltalk to the group, share what it is and what makes it special. He will also discuss other topics such as:
- Why he chose Smalltalk coming from C and Forth
- A Smalltalk-based prototype for the Defense Nuclear Agency of the U.S. military
- Programming language implementation in Smalltalk
- Interactive web programming using Smalltalk
- Using Smalltalk as a prototyping and design tool for a smart network security administration tool
- . . . and more
Suzanne will also be available to discuss the Smalltalk community, partner solutions, various Cincom Smalltalk partner programs and the business side of making great software.
The second meetup that has been scheduled is the Orange County Java User Group (OCJUG) in Irvine, CA and is for anyone who is interested in Java development. This meetup also presents opportunities for networking and features presentations on some topics of interest to Java developers. This networking opportunity will take place on September 11 and Arden Thomas, the Product Manager for Cincom Smalltalk, will be joining Suzanne to present and represent Cincom.
What Other Networking Opportunities Are Coming Up?
Along with the above meetups, there are several upcoming opportunities to meet with Smalltalkers and programmers from around the world. These networking and learning opportunities include:
- July 25, 2019 — Seattle Software Crafters (Seattle, Washington)
- July 29, 2019 — Munich Smalltalk Meetup (Munich, Germany)
- August 5-9, 2019 — Agile2019 (Washington, D.C.)
- August 26-30, 2019 — ESUG 2019 (Cologne, Germany)
- September 11, 2019 — Orange County Java User Group (OCJUG) (Irvine, California)
- October 21-15, 2019 — SPLASH 2019 OOPSLA (Athens, Greece)
- November 11-12, 2019 — Smalltalks19 (Neuquén province of Argentina)
Helpful Customer Links and Information
Attention customers and partners, have you seen the Customer Portal? It has links to all the important information our partners and customers need. Here’s a quick guide:
- Customer Product Request Form – For customers and partners with a valid customer number.
- Cincom Smalltalk Resolutions Newsletter Request Form
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- Cincom Professional Services – Get more information on product upgrades, mentoring, troubleshooting, performance enhancements, migrations and more.
- Customer Support
- Education Services
Popular Product Resources
Maybe you are new to Cincom Smalltalk or just need help finding something specific on our website. Here’s a quick guide to the popular resources we have available on our website: