UDzone interviews Tom Muck
UDzone: Hi Tom. To begin, would you like to give us a little bit of background information on yourself? Lots of UD users know you from the newsgroup and your fantastic extensions. But who is Tom Muck?
Tom Muck: Well. . .I am fairly new to the computer field. I used to be a carpenter for almost 20 years, and I decided I needed to find a profession where I could make a little more money and not destroy my body in the process. So I went to school for Visual Basic programming and soon thereafter found a job doing Web development work. I also had a long history of programming for fun. I started out around 1983 programming the Commodore 64 in Basic and Assembly language.
UDzone: You call it 'fairly new', but you started in 1983! How long have you been in the internet business?
Tom Muck: I've been doing this for a living for a little over a year. In September of 1999 I was still working as a carpenter.
UDzone: And when did you discover UltraDev?
Tom Muck: Well, I took the job (same one I still have) as a web developer because I loved the program Drumbeat 2000. Ray West and myself hooked up shortly after I started posting answers in the Drumbeat newsgroup and we decided to put together a Drumbeat website. We got onto the first UltraDev beta, so we decided to switch our efforts to the new program since Drumbeat was being discontinued. I also used to enjoy extending Drumbeat with new SmartElements and Contracts, so I decided to do the same with UltraDev.
UDzone: Seems to be a good decission. Did you immediately decide to write a book about UD, or have you been asked by someone to do it?
Tom Muck: We had been working towards putting together a Drumbeat book, but then decided to do the UltraDev book instead.
UDzone: I think you were one of the first to release UD specific extensions, and the book also handles this topic. What’s your opinion on the extending capabilities of UD?
Tom Muck: The extensibility of UltraDev is great. There are so many areas that haven't been exploited yet, such as Data Formats, Connections, Reports, and References
UDzone: That's true, but everyone needs time to find out how they work. And not all UD users are programmers. There are also lots of designers around that are able to build database driven websites because of UD and they probably are never going to extend Dreamweaver.
Tom Muck: True. I have no design ability whatsoever, so I look up to the designers.
UDzone: How have you tried to satisfy the different groups of Ultradev users (like programmers and non-programmers) while writing the book?
Tom Muck: Well, Ray handled the design aspects of the Web site that we feature in the book, and he did a great job. There's something in the book for everyone, but not everyone will be happy because we cover a lot of territory. We wrote sections on SQL, database design, extensions, and the shopping cart. But there are sections on all major aspects of DW/UD, including Fireworks integration.
We also tried to make it usable by anyone -- don't need a specific server/database combination to use the book. It should be applicable to everyone.
UDzone: We heard that there are some very hot topics in the book - could you enlighten us a bit?
Tom Muck: Well, the chapter on the shopping cart should be popular. It goes thru the creation of a complete e-store. Also, there is a chapter on SQL and one on database design which should really help out the Web developers who started with Dreamweaver but want to get into dynamic sites. And there will be www.basic-ultradev.com which will have tutorials, extensions, and other stuff. Then we will have the site from the book up and running also, as an example for anyone who is trying to follow along with the tutorials in the book. The book also has the complete sites available on the CD ROM in ASP/JSP/CF. It was an incredible amount of work. I think it was something like 250 web pages total.
UDzone: What is the main goal of the book - getting more people to understand/work with UD, or even get more people to extend UD?
Tom Muck: Well, since my main focus is extensions, I would love to see more people involved. But the focus of the book is just to help people get more familiar with the program. Most people probably won't read the chapter on how to build a server behavior.
UDzone: Maybe they won’t, but more and more people are diving into extensibility. What do you think of the growing UltraDev community in general?
Tom Muck: I think it's great. I think UltraDev is headed to being the top program out there for Web development. The community has a lot of great people involved. Plus, there are quite a few other books coming out, such as the Dummies book, the Bible, Spencer's book, and a few others. They will all contribute to the success of the program
UDzone: You say that UD is heading to being the top program for web development. What do you expect from the future versions of UD?
Tom Muck: Well, I think it is the best program now, but the vast majority of web developers aren't doing dynamic web sites yet. The next generation of UltraDev will probably continue along the path of making the transition to dynamic pages easier.
UDzone: It's difficult for Macromedia to make choices. They have to satisfy both the designers, dhtml freaks and dynamic website builders. And they all have different wishes. Do you think that that is the power of Macromedia - to listen to all developers - and make the best of their wishes?
Tom Muck: This is true. As a programmer I was a little disappointed with UltraDev 1, but UD 4 is much better. I would still like to see the floating toolbars tied down and docked permanently as a preference item. As a member of both betas for Ultradev, I can say that they do listen to suggestions and complaints very well. But there is always room for improvement.
UDzone: Your extensions already make a huge improvement. What are you going to focus on now the book is ready?
Tom Muck: Well, now we have to support the book and any questions people might have. Also, I'm focusing on extensions presently, and hope to have a batch of new ones available soon. Ray and I will also continue to develop the basic-ultradev site now that we have some time. During the book process there wasn't any free time for this sort of thing.
UDzone: Well we hope you are going to post your extensions on UDzone too!
Tom Muck: I'd love to put a few up there in the future. I still have some updates to do for the exchange, as well.
UDzone: I'll be looking forward to it. Thanks Tom for sharing some time with us.
Tom Muck: No problem. It was a pleasure.
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