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Mr. Todres Yampel, President & COO of ResQNet.com, really does not require much of an introduction. Those that know the Web-to-host industry (most of whom also happen to be regular readers of this Newsletter) consider him a legend. Tod has forgotten more about application enhancement and IBM connectivity than most will ever hope to learn in their lifetime. Tod was first mentioned by name in this Newsletter in the 10/26/98 issue - when he kindly clarified my misunderstanding as to how ResQNet's rejuvenation technology [in particular the XML-based customization definitions] was used by IBM's Host On-Demand. His name has appeared quite a few times since. Tod has contributed an incisive article on "Web-based Technologies for User Interface Rejuvenation" to our latest [i.e. May 2000] 'Web-to-Host Connectivity' book.
Tod was one of the first people to identify the enormous potential of wireless-to-host and moreover be astute and bold enough to promptly act on it. ResQ/ME and ResQEnable [May 2000] were the fruits of Tod's cutting-edge work.
Tod, a 'technocrat's technocrat', practices what he preaches. He has been gainfully using a Palm Pilot V, with the OmniSky service, since late last year, to work on his e-mails while commuting to-and-from work, by bus, in New York City.
This exclusive interview with Tod, cuts through the static, and gives us a rare and invaluable insight into the true world of wireless-to-host.
But before we start, a true, real-life story about the impact of wireless in contemporary society.
A Canadian friend of mine [also an avid reader of this Newsletter] drove over to visit with some friends in Montreal, one Friday evening a few weeks ago. Upon reaching the front door, he instinctively reached out for his trusty, digital Nokia holstered to his belt and called his friends to tell them that he was at the door.
It was when they were opening the door that he realized, with only a modicum of embarrassment, that he could have rung the illuminated doorbell!
This should be made into an apocalyptic ad for what the wireless world is all about.
Q. What is behind the allure of the wireless PDAs?
T.Y. Wireless capability is a natural extension of the functionality of the Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) devices. It took a couple of false starts to get those PDAs right.
Palm’s popularity is based on simplicity of use and reliability. The rule of thumb for a well designed Palm application is that information should be accessible by no more than three stylus taps. Now that people are using it more and more for storing phone numbers, ‘to-do-lists’ and such, the Web-enablement of the PDAs is a natural evolution.
The wireless functionality becomes the logical next step. Say you are searching for someone’s phone number and it is not stored on your Palm. Wouldn’t it be nice to go to the ‘Net’ and get it ‘from the air’?
Tod wanted ResQ/Me to be as comprehensive as possible in its support of wireless devices
All of this, and much more is now possible. This includes news, stock quotes, dining guides, movie guides, driving directions, even Dear Abby and Ms. Manners.
Of course, the most useful application for the wireless PDA is email. Having a small internet connected computer is also a godsend to network administrators. Network diagnostic tools, such as Ping and Telnet are already available for the Palm.
Palm-to-host via ResQ/Me is already available folling extensive testing
Q. What are the key opportunities and challenges of displaying host data on the small displays found on today's wireless PDA devices?
T.Y. The challenge here is to recognize what information is essential and how to break it up into small pieces that are accessible by two stylus clicks - with very few fields requiring keyboard input.
So applications like status checks, inquiry of balances, tracking shipments, are a natural for these devices. And the opportunities are great. Almost every enterprise host application has some inquiries, that are important to the managers on the road. Those screens, however, need to be cleaned-up and reformatted to fit the PDA size in a process that is called application clipping’. ResQNet’s ResQEnable service was designed to provide customers with affordable on-site expertise to adapt their host programs to work with PDAs and other wireless devices - obviously without requiring any changes to the host applications.
Q. Do you see any exciting new technologies, such as voice recognition, that might totally change the face of wireless-to-host?
T.Y. I see the convergence of the two technologies - cell phone and PDA.
The user population of cell phones is huge and growing fast. The main factor here is the perceived ease of use; everyone’s grandmother is using the cell phone these days, while some huge segments of the general population are just scared to get near a computer.
On the other hand, the majority of cell phones in use today do not have a pointing device to click on any objects. Most implementations use the ‘Navigator’ key that combines the functions of arrow keys to navigate on the screen. Some browsers assign numeric values to the first nine objects, in which case you can activate them by pressing the corresponding number on the phone's keypad. If you have more than nine objects you need to use the ‘Navigator’ key to position the cursor on them, then use the ‘Select’ key to initiate the action.
Voice recognition technology would come handy in such a situation. At this point, however, most phones are not equipped with sufficiently powerful CPUs and lack the memory to implement it.
Q. Do you see any changes taking place in the Host-to-Palm area?
T.Y. I see them coming in the near future. Once users realize that Web-enabled tracking systems used by FedEx and UPS are getting this information from a mainframe, it won’t take them long to start offering similar services from their own legacy systems. The obstacles at this time are perceived security problems. But at some point this issue will go away. Someone in authority will just say, “Hey, if this is good enough for FedEx and Schwab, it should work for us too.”
Q. Is doing Host-to-Palm essentially the same as doing host-to-Pocket PC?
T.Y. While there are a lot of similarities, there are some important differences too. Both of these device types work with HTML. The Palm browsers, especially on Palm VII, are much more limited than the ones available on the WinCE/Pocket PC devices. There is no color, no scripting support, etc.
Original mainframe 3270 screen and its representation on a Palm using ResQ/Me cum ResQPortal
Q. With Pocket PCs essentially having Internet Explorer on it, I have seen vendors claiming that their normal 3270/5250-to-HTML solutions will work unchanged with Pocket PCs. Is this really the case?
T.Y. While technically possible, one has to understand that the Pocket PC belongs to a totally different class of devices, where the stylus (rather than the keyboard) is the main tool for data entry. So, in practice, some work is required to provide a better interface that is more suitable for stylus usage.
This is where ResQNet tools add value by providing the means to modify HTML screens quickly without changing a single line of code on the mainframe. With just a few mouse clicks, screens can be rearranged from a ‘short-wide’ PC format to the ‘long-narrow’ one that is more suitable to the PDA screen size. Input fields can be quickly converted into choice boxes, radio buttons or check boxes.
Q. How will the so called “IR mode devices”, now readily available in Japan, impact wireless-to-host opportunities?
T.Y. I think at first it will change the LAN or intranet infrastructure by eliminating the need for expensive wiring. There are some colleges in the US that bypassed the stage of wiring the campus by going wireless. The cost savings are tremendous and additional conveniences are offered as well. Students can connect their laptops from any point on and around the campus. The next logical step is to provide this wireless access outside the campus.
Q. There has been some talk that WAP might not be as significant and pervasive as originally thought. What are your views on this?
T.Y. I am not sure I agree with the predictions that WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) is on its way out or dead already. As for internal squabbles among vendors, they were inevitable. Most phone browsers are produced by Phone.com, who were the pioneers in this area. Their HDML [Handheld Device Markup Language] became the foundation of WML (Wireless Markup Language) and the WAP Forum was founded by them.
In my humble opinion, the problem with phone browsers at this stage lies with limitations of the interface, e.g. awkward way of data entry, limited selection of visual objects, absence of point-and-click devices, etc.
We are encountering these limitations when we customize mainframe screens to fit the phone format.
One cannot easily mix and match objects of different structure, say labels with text input fields. Objects can be assigned a line number from 1 to 9, in which case you don't need to bring the focus to them and press the select button - you can just press the corresponding number on the phone's key pad. So in a weird sense, you’ve got nine function keys, plus the OK/Select key.
It is a real stretch to call such an interface GUI. Far from it - this is as much anti-GUI as you can get. It reminds me of navigating a Windows interface when the mouse dies on you. What this technology needs is a voice interface, even if spelling words s-l-o-w-l-y is the only way. Having tried a few voice recognition programs in the past couple of years and NOT being able to 'train' such programs to recognize my accent (life is too short to waste on training stupid pets or toys), I am not too optimistic that the cell phones will have sufficient computing power in the next year or so. What is really holding us back right now is the limitations of batteries. Fast processors are available, memory is plentiful, nice looking screens are available. But all of these components are power hungry, and one of the important requirements of a useful PDA is that it should work for 7-8 hours without the need to recharge. This, by the way, explains why the Palm-based devices are more popular in the workplace than the colorful Pocket PCs - they last 8 hours without recharging.
Q. What is ResQ/ME and how does it differ from other offerings from ResQNet?
T.Y. What is new with ResQ/ME is that we are bundling services here in addition to the product. The wireless PDAs are so different from a typical 'green screen' host terminal that it requires thinking 'outside the box', if you excuse my usage of that cliché. There is a need to analyze what portions of the legacy application are suitable for Palm-enablement. Once this is done, there are some challenges ahead on how to break up a busy screen and feed it to the Palm user one segment at a time without changing the host application. This requires a good deal of understanding of how the host application behaves and how to trick it produce the desired results using ResQNet tools, such as AMF (Advanced Macro Facility).
Q. IBM released a product call Transcoding Publisher for WebSphere, that among other things can do HTML-to-WML conversion. Some people are claiming that this type of capability alone is enough to successfully implement wireless-to-host applications. Is this really the case? Do you need other things beyond just 'format/protocol’ conversion?
T.Y. You are correct in identifying that this type of product is targeted as a Web-enabling tool for the wireless PDA and 'smart phones’ market. The idea here is to Web-enable, if you will, existing Web solutions, to offer this tool to popular sites, such as Ebay.com or DLJDirect.com as the vehicle to expand their existing Web solution to the wireless PDA market. Most products in this category work by putting together a configurable set of rules on how to 'transform' existing HTML content, where to wrap the text sentences, what to do with included graphical images, plug-ins, etc.
As for accessing legacy hosts, such tools usually leave it to other applications to deliver host content in HTML format. They take over later on and reformat the received content into a different set of sentences in either HTML, HDML or WML. In case of IBM, the Host Publisher software, running most likely under WebSphere, would be the application for delivering HTML output from legacy hosts and handing it over to the Transcoding Server.
Thank You, Tod for your time and patience.
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