An uncolorful picture of the colorful Lino Tadros
Lino, what years did you work at Borland?
1993 to 1998
What was it like working at Borland?
Heaven! I loved my job and the people there. I owe my career to Borland. They taught me everything I know and everything I will know, because they taught me how to learn.
What was your role there?
Associate Engineer - dBASE for DOS - Tech Support
Engineer - dBASE for Windows - Tech Support
Engineer - C++ - Tech Support
Senior Engineer - C++ Tech Support
Senior Engineer - Pascal Tech Support
Senior Consultant - Delphi Tech Support
Software Engineer - QA Delphi International
Senior Software Engineer - QA & R&D Delphi & C++ Builder
What was your most interesting assignment there?
After Delphi 2 shipped where OLE and COM were quite a mystery, I was so interested in learning what the heck is that ActiveX Control thing all about. I waited in the parking lot at Borland for Anders Hejlsberg when he came out to smoke his cigarette to ask "God" if he could give me some pointers on where to go find out how to write an OCX in Delphi 2. He told me "Very Interesting!!! why don't you find out and let me know" and we agrred to meet everyday in the parking lot (for the length of 1 cigarette) to ask him questions and let him know how I am doing with my research. The more we met everyday, we both got more and more interested in making it work. By the summer of 1995, I had the first ActiveX control ever written in Delphi 2. It was amazing, fun and rewarding.
You are known as a "notorious practical joker". Which stunts have you pulled that you can tell us about (besides the [in]famous "fake AV" previously reported in Steve Teixeira's interview: http://community.borland.com/article/0,1410,29925,00.html)?
During the .COM disasters between 1999 and 2000 I had a dozen Engineers working for me at a consulting firm in the Silicon Valley where I sent an email to everyone requesting feedback on the new application UI that I was architecting. Unfortunately, I forgot to mention in my email that by opening the attachment in the email 2 things will happen: 1- Your Home page in the browser will be Monster.com 2- The left mouse button and right mouse buttons get switched.
Then I made the rounds asking my employees to check some web news in my presence and all of a sudden Monster.com came up which made them very uncomfortable in my presence and when they wanted to close it quickly the popup menu kept appearing. :)
Bad boy, Lino!
What about Falafel software? Where did that name come from--what image are you trying to project? I love falafels and (AFAIK) all Mediterranean food, but I don't quite get the connection between them and software. :-)
:) That name was provided by a very dear friend of mine, Mr. Noel Rice, he came and suggested the name and I thought he was joking. He put tears in my eyes when he said "Falafel is an Egyptian subject that came to the States and gained acceptance and success where the majority of the people learned to like and enjoy, same for you Lino"
Falafel sells IntraWeb courseware. How did that come about?
Well I am a big fan of Intraweb, it is the Delphi way of doing Web development. I also know the IntraWeb Dev team pretty well (Chad Hower & Hadi Harriri) who are extremely talented developers. The IntraWeb team liked the idea of me writing the 200 page course and selling it really cheap on the internet. I did and it became a tremendous success. The course is actually mine personally that is why it moved with me under the new Falafel Corporation.
Do you provide on-site IntraWeb training?
Yes we do. Check the site at www.falafelsoft.com
What do you think of the .NET framework?
Very good stuff. Impressive and demands respect.
Will Falafel focus on .NET?
Falafel is a consulting and training company mainly. We don't focus on a special technology, we try to accomodate our customers and their technologies. Of course we always recommend using good technologies and .NET is definitely one of them.
How long do you think it will take before Win32 programming jobs have disappeared? Should we all be learning .NET now, or will .NET only slowly gain ascendency in the programming world?
I believe Win32 will be here for a long time to come, big corporations don't move fast on these things.
That said, YES, everyone should be learning .NET, it is the future of Windows development.
.NET is definitely gaining momentum in the marketplace, we have several fortune 500 companies that are ready for pilot programs with .NET and the Compact Framework in particular.
Do you foresee Borland's market share rising along with the ascendency of .NET (due to the availability and superiority of Delphi for .NET, C# Builder, Janeva, and Borland's many recent acquisitions facilitating full Software Lifecycle Development)?
I do and I hope so. Borland is not releasing a "me too" development environment for .NET, they are bringing a lot to the table with the ALM story (Together and Bold), StarTeam integration, Borland Database Providers and last but not least Janeva which is an amazing product that will bring .NET, J2EE and Corba together elegantly which is something that is very much needed in the market today.
What are the advantages of .NET over Win32?
Single component model from the ground up based on OOP.
Single exception handling mechanism.
Very Fast!
Apps will run wherever the framework is ported (Windows, PDA, Linux, Mac, etc...)
Does Win32 have any advantages over .NET?
The 3rd party market that was built over the years for the Win32 platform and the amount of code available out there to learn and utilize, athough these adavantages are rapidly becoming non relevant.
What do you think is a better choice of language to focus on: Delphi for .NET or C#?
It is really not about languages anymore, it is about the power of the IDE you are working with to make your life easier. Delphi developers can master the C# language a lot faster than a VC++ or VB developer. You can use both languages in the same project very successfully.
How did you get started in programming?
Sinclair 128 and Comodore 64 :) I wrote my programs (mostly games) and saved them on cassette tapes. I loved it!
How many years have you been programming?
12 years
What tool[s] did you use prior to working for Borland?
Screwdrivers, hammers, chain saws, etc... Not really, dBASE and Paradox.
What programming languages do you know? Which ones do you currently utilize?
I know Delphi, C#, VB, C/C++, Java and Cobol. I currently utilize all but Cobol (thank God).
Would you recommend a career in programming to young people today?
I am a consultant, so NO. I would like to stay in business for a long time :)
Of course I do, it is the best job I could ever dream of, fun, exciting, rewarding and does not require any more than 14 hour / day.
If so, what courses would you recommend they take? What languages/technologies should they key on?
They should learn the following:
Delphi - to learn the elegance of a programing language.
C/C++ - to pay back for all the bad things they did in college.
Java - to learn patience.
C# - To have a job by the time they finish college. :)
Which software project/product that you have participated in are you most proud of?
Delphi 3. It was the most exciting project of my life so far. I learned by the firehose and worked with the best in the business. Working day in and day out with Anders Hejlsberg, Chuck Jazdzewski, Danny Thorpe, Allen Bauer, Steve Teixeira and the rest of the team is something that I will cherish for the rest of my life.
What software project[s] are you currently working on?
I am working on 2 Delphi projects, 1 C# project and 1 Java project. The C# project is at HP, very exciting but I can't tell you much about, sorry. Java, I am working very closely with M7 www.m7.com to consult and train on their J2EE JSP based implementation, great product! The Delphi projects are for 2 customers in the Bay area, 1 for serial communication over modems and USB utilizing AsyncPro and the other is all based on Web Services and MapPoint integration. I am having lots of fun!
If you had a webcam on your shoulder throughout a "typical" workday, can you give us an outline of what we would see (excluding episodes devoted to "personal hygiene" and the like, of course)?
First around 6:00 am my son Justin will jump in bed with us and kick me out, so my day starts usually very early :) I go to my office and read emails for 30 minutes, then after all the personal hygiene, I jump in the car and go to my first customer to demo the latest code, discuss architecture changes, then go to lunch with that customer. After lunch I head to HP, spend the rest of the day working on their architecture and development. Later I meet with my Falafel team for dinner usually, have a drink, say some jokes and back to the camp to work again for few hours. Later at night, I enjoy spending some time with my wife and kids laughing and enjoying life. Laughing is a big part of my life. That is it, boring huh!
Not hardly!
What do you do when you're not involved with work, directly or tangentially? (Hobbies? Sports?)
I love Squash (The sport not the vegetable), I need to go back and play, I need to lose a lot of weight. Mainly my hobby is really playing with my kids, they are the joy of my life.
What was the funniest experience you've ever had related to programming?
The funniest experience I had was during the Delphi 3 development cycle when I had a serious problem running one of the builds on my machine and after wasting almost 4 hours, I went to Anders and Chuck and requested help. Anders and Chuck came to my office, sat down next to each other in front of my machine and started debugging delphi32.exe inside of TD32. I sat behind them watching.
Few minutes later, Anders pointed to the CPU window at some bits and told Chuck "Look Chuck, this byte is not supposed to be here, this is a pcked record" Chuck looked at it for 5 seconds and confirmed. Then Anders looked at me and said "Lino, during the install from the network, one of the packages shifted 1 byte to the left for some reason, delete the package and reinstall".
That was funny because I felt like I had the wrong job and that I should consider opening a hot dog stand somewhere instead of software development. These folks are Gods!
What was the most interesting experience you've ever had related to programming?
Seeing Danny Thorpe debugging other people's code. Very interesteing! He puts in mind not only the code he is debugging but the personality and the level of expertise of the developer that wrote the code. It is amazing how he does not suspect specific problem with the code just because he knows who wrote it. He is one of the best developers in the world. I am lucky to know him.
It sounds like he could have been a psychologist or a top-notch detective. What 3rd party tools do you find essential?
TestComplete and AQTime, we can't do our jobs as consultants without them.
AsyncPro
IntraWeb
TMS IW Planner
CodeSite
Raize Components.
What do you hope to see from Borland in the future?
Some money :) They are late on their accounts payables. :)
How many hours per day do you spend programming/at the computer?
12 to 14, sorry honey!
No need to call me honey, Lino baby.
How much time do you spend on the newsgroups/surfing the web each day?
Newsgroups not much, it is quite depressing over there these days, I can live without that. I surf the web a lot for resources and information.
Which programming web sites do you have bookmarked?
Code Project
ASP.NET
GotDotNet.com
How do you keep current with your programming skills?
Did I mention 12 to 14? :) It is a very demanding industry to keep on top of things.
Which Borland Conferences have you attended?
95, 96, 97, 98, 2000, 2001, 2002
Which was the best one, and why?
1995 in Anaheim was my best. I completed my ActiveX control writen in Delphi 2 hours before my ActiveX session which blew people's mind away. I got a long standing ovation for proving the fact that Delphi 2 can compile a true ActiveX Control and work in VB
Who do you consider to be the best programmer you know personally, or know of?
Anders Hejlsberg
What is your "claim to fame" outside the realm of programming?
Impersonations! I do good imitations of people especially for Anders Hejlsberg, Chuck Jazdzewski, Danny Thorpe and David Intersimone.
That sounds like the basis for a great and raucous BorCon seesion.
If you could live anywhere on earth at any time, when and where would it be, and why?
In the United States of America, right now, right here. I am very happy with my life, I am so grateful for being able to live in the US and so grateful that by kids will grow free and strong with ambition that has the sky as the limit.
If you were given 30 seconds of free television air time, to be broadcast all throughout the earth, and could say anything you wanted, what would it be?
"Hi Mom!"
What is your favorite programming book?
Applied .NET Framework Programming - by Jeffrey Richter
What is your favorite non-programming book?
There are non-programming books?
What is your favorite beverage?
Arnold Palmer.
??????
What is your favorite color?
Blue
What is your favorite movie?
Rocky 2
What is your favorite song?
Nothing is gonna Stop us now.
What is you favorite musician or musical group?
Harry Connick Jr.
You are now writing for the new magazine "Borland .NET Developer's Journal". Tell us about that--is it a monthly? Who is the target audience? What types of articles will it contain?
Borland .NET Developer's Journal
is devoted to helping developers get the most out of C#Builder and Delphi for .NET. It is published monthly and contains articles covering every aspect of software development using these excellent development products. The magazines offer a constant flow of fresh ideas, shortcuts, and advice from software experts worldwide.
This interview took place via email June 2003
Clay Shannon is a Borland and PDA-certified Delphi 5 developer and the author of "Tomes of Delphi: Developer's Guide to Troubleshooting" (Wordware, 2001) as well as the novel he claims is the strangest one ever written, "the Wacky Misadventures of Warble McGorkle" (see Wacky Warble, etc. for more information on the 4 Novels application, which contains this and three other novels he has penned).
You can find out more about Clay at: http://hometown.aol.com/bclayshannon/myhomepage/index.html
You can look into Clay's shareware and determine his current availability at: http://hometown.aol.com/bclayshannon/myhomepage/business.html
You can contact him at: BClayShannon@aol.com
