Apple WWDC 97 CD set

I really enjoyed the reactions and feedback to the last post, and even heard from several presenters! I’m still on the lookout for slides/videos from WWDC 1998/1999, if you have any information please contact me!

A few months after my last post, I spotted a WWDC 97 CD set on eBay. I had included a picture of it in the last post, but thought it was just the CD that the slides had come from.

As it turns out, this is a 5 CD set containing session videos from the conference! The videos are in RealMedia format at very low bitrates/quality, allowing for 20 sessions across the 5 CDs.

If you liked the slides, you’ll find the videos fascinating. In particular, the overview/strategy speakers take pains to emphasize what has changed since the year before: developing rather than abandoning the Mac OS, promising to ship regular incremental improvements, and moving ahead with a next-generation OS (Rhapsody) built on shipping, proven technology.

Some highlights:

  • Session 500: Hardware Roadmap includes a 7 minute talk by industrial design director Jonathan Ive (starting at minute 32), who takes the wraps off a new product. I think he’s still at Apple, does anyone know?
  • Session 204: Mac OS Support in Rhapsody’s Blue Box shows the Blue Box (which would become the Classic Environment) in an already quite functional state. The Blue Box was actually demoed running on both Copland (the original development target) and Rhapsody, making this probably the only session where Copland was still being shown.
  • Many sessions include substantial (20+ minute) Q&A sessions at the end, which are fascinating to watch. In particular, the Q&A for Session 101: Core OS Changes is a potpourri of esoteric Mac development questions and jokes (i.e. about the classic Mac “printing architecture”).

Session descriptions are below each video link, and my notes are in italics.

Opening Presentations

  • Opening Keynote
    Straight talk about the future of Apple and the Mac OS platform. Now that the difficult choices are behind us, what lies ahead? A look at the business and technology foundations for Apple’s return to profitability and renewed growth. Apple CEO, Dr. Gilbert Amelio is joined by Vice President of Developers Relations, David Krathwohl, Sr. Vice President Software Engineering, Avie Tevanian, and Senior Vice President Hardware Engineering, Jon Rubinstein. Demos by Peter Lowe and Scott Forstall.
  • Rules for Revolutionaries Introducing an innovative product or service? Chief Evangelist and Apple Fellow, Guy Kawasaki explains the rules for revolutionaries that determine the success or failure of new products and services. Using examples from the personal-computer industry and others, Guy explains what to do and not to do. This presentation is a complete and pragmatic guide to the creation and marketing of revolutionary products and services for people who want to change the world.

Series 100: Mac OS

  • Session 100: Mac OS Overview (slides)
    Apple will continue enhancing and improving the Mac OS while providing an excellent transition path to Rhapsody. This session will include information about technologies that will be delivered in future Mac OS releases, including Mac OS 8 and Allegro. It will also provide a roadmap to the detailed Mac OS technology sessions.
    Presented by Avie Tevanian, Senior Vice President, Software Engineering; Steven Glass, Vice President, Mac OS Engineering; Peter Lowe, Mac OS 8 Product Manager; Gordon Garb, User Experience Evangelist

  • Session 101: Core OS Changes (slides)
    Apple is making significant changes to the Mac OS infrastructure. Come learn what’s new, what’s changed, and how it affects you.
    Presented by C.K. Haun, Mac OS 8 Lead Engineer; Mark Gealy, File System Engineering
    Includes Q&A
  • Session 102: Mac OS User Experience Enhancements (slides)
    Find out how to take advantage of the new features of the Mac OS Toolbox including the Appearance Manager and contextual menus to make your application easier to use, easier to program and more consistent.
    Presented by Edward Voas, Technical Lead, UE Toolbox, OS Technology Group; Arlo Rose, Human Interface Lead, UE Toolbox
    Includes Q&A
  • Session 103: Mac OS User Experience Enhancements II (slides)
    In this session you will find out how to write contextual menu plug-ins. You will also learn how to extend Apple Data Detectors, a contextual menu plug-in that makes managing your information easier than ever.
    Presented by Arno Gourdol, User Experience Tech Lead; Guy Fullerton, Contextual Menu Engineer, User Experience Team; Dave Wright, Technical Lead, User Experience Team and Apple Technology Group
    Includes Q&A

Series 200: Rhapsody

  • Session 200: Rhapsody Technical Strategy and Overview (slides)
    Rhapsody is Apple’s powerful new operating system that features a state-of-the-art OS foundation, great support for Mac OS, an advanced look and feel, a rich object-oriented programming model based on OpenStep and Java and best of class multimedia with QTML. The Rhapsody technical strategy will be described as well as the business opportunities that Rhapsody enables.
    Presented by Avie Tevanian, Senior Vice President, Software Engineering; Ricardo Gonzalez, Senior Product Marketing Manager; Bertrand Serlet, Senior Director, Rhapsody Engineering; Ken Bereskin, Manager, Rhapsody Evangelism
  • Session 201: Rhapsody Core OS: Kernel and Runtime (slides)
    Learn the basics of Rhapsody’s kernel and runtime architecture, including process model, memory management architecture, IPC, synchronization, POSIX support, and runtime environment.
    Presented by John C. Signa, Rhapsody Core OS Evangelist; Brett R. Halle, Manager, Core OS Kernel Group
    Includes Q&A

  • Session 204: Mac OS Support in Rhapsody’s Blue Box (slides)
    Mac OS and most solutions will run full speed under Rhapsody in their own protected environment, the “Blue Box”. This session will detail the Blue Box technology and suggest compatibility guidelines for your current products.
    Presented by Jeff Robbin, Technical Lead; Jim Murphy, Dr. MacsBug
    Includes Q&A
  • Session 208: OpenStep Developer API and Framework Overview (slides)
    OpenStep provides a rich set of APIs organized in frameworks to enable developers to easily build full featured and robust applications. This session will give an overview of the frameworks, the features offered, and conventions used.
    Presented by Jordan Dea-Mattson, Senior Evangelist, Rhapsody Evangelism; Peter Graffagnino, Director, Yellow Box Engineering
    Includes Q&A
  • Session 210: Rhapsody User Experience (slides)
    Rhapsody will feature an advanced look and feel that is the union of the best features of Mac OS along with innovations from NeXT. This session will describe our plans for the user experience for the Developer, Premier and Unified releases of Rhapsody.
    Presented by Kurt Piersol, Rhapsody UE Lead
    Includes Q&A

Series 300: Interactive Media

  • Session 300: QuickTime Overview (slides)
    The QuickTime overview session will cover QuickTime and its family of related technologies, including QuickTime VR and QuickDraw 3D. Learn about recent advances and new opportunities for digital media creation and publishing for professional media applications, consumer multimedia, and on the Internet. Learn how QuickTime technologies fit in your future and come see the cool demos pointing the way.
    Presented by Peter Hoddie, Chief Architect, QuickTime
  • Session 304: Integrating QTVR into Applications & Future Directions (slides)
    Focus is on the new QuickTime VR v2.0 C-API. This session will show examples of how developers can incorporate playback and output of QuickTime VR movies. We will also show how sprites, text, MIDI, audio, video, 3D etc… can all be combined with QuickTime VR movies.
    Presented by Tim Monroe; Ken Turkowski; Mark Wheeler; Yalin Xiong
    Includes Q&A
  • Session 306: QuickDraw 3D 1.5 Overview (slides)
    This session will cover a brief introduction to QuickDraw 3D 1.5.1, the latest release of this cross platform 3D graphics programming API. Topics include an overview of the new geometries and an overview of the new plug-in architecture.
    Presented by Shawn Hopwood, Product Manager; David Harrington, Evangelist; Philip Schneider, QuickDraw 3D Technical Lead; Debbie/Scott, 3Dfx Interactive
    Includes Q&A

Includes the famous 3Dfx Valley of Ra demo and GLQuake running on a Power Mac 8500 on a 3Dfx Voodoo card

  • Session 308: QuickTime Futures (slides)
    Come hear where QuickTime is heading beyond QuickTime 3.0 Learn how QuickTime will be extended to support interactivity and better media integration. Get the straight scoop on QuickTime-based HyperCard.
    Presented by Kevin Calhoun, QT 4.0 Engineering Manager; Peter Hoddie; Reuven Sherwin, Pitango Software

Series 400: Internet and Web

  • Session 400: Apple’s Internet and Web Technologies (slides)
    Apple, together with our developers, is uniquely positioned to take advantage of the explosive growth of the Internet. Find out how we are leveraging our strengths to make Macintosh the Internet/Intranet platform of choice.
    Presented by Ellen Hancock, Chief Technology Officer; Larry Slotnick, VP, Internet & Enterprise Product Engineering
  • Session 408: WebObjects- Overview (slides)
    WebObjects is an open platform for building and deploying dynamic network applications. Learn about the concepts and uses for this platform and the components and tools WebObjects provides.
    Presented by David Kay, Product Line Manager, WebObjects
    Includes Q&A

Series 500: Hardware

  • Session 500: Hardware Roadmap (slides)
    At 300MHz Apple Computer makes the fastest personal computer in the world. At 240MHz we make the fastest notebook computer in the world! What’s next? Come to this session to find out!
    Presented by Jon Rubinstein, Senior VP, Hardware Engineering; Phil Schiller, VP Desktop and Server Product Marketing; Steve Bannerman, Product Manager, Power Mac Group; Sandy Green, Product Manager, PowerBook; Jonathan Ive, Director, Industrial Design Labs

Closing Presentations

This is Steve Jobs’ famous “fireside chat”, which took place on the Friday of the conference as the first part of the closing keynote. I feel it’s the single best explanation of the principles that Jobs followed in turning around Apple, and it’s always worth a re-watch. Other articles: Daring Fireball, Rands in Repose

The keynote and conference concludes with the raffling off of two Twentieth Anniversary Macs. I’m gonna go out on a limb and say this was the last time a raffle was conducted onstage at an Apple event.

Additional Links

  • Unfortunately, I don’t have videos of the sessions presented by Scott Forstall or Craig Federighi. Scott makes a brief appearance in the opening keynote though.

  • For those still rocking RealPlayer, the original movie files are available for download from my server.
    Get RealPlayer Now!