It's another sunny but chill morning in Tokyo. My wife Tana and I are here to celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of the founding of Advanced Data Controls Corp., the company that has represented my interests in Japan so well since its inception. Personally, I'm on my second company, after a stint as an independent writer. ADaC is still going strong in its original form.
Japan makes a comfortable sojourn, after two dozen visits. I have my regular pilgrimages — Sanjusangendo in Kyoto, the Dempoin Garden in Asakusa. I have my little rituals — tea, yogurt, and croissants overlooking the New Otani garden. Meditating upon these beautifully preserved jewels, it would be easy to convince myself that Japan remains unchanged over the decades and centuries.
But that is simply not the case. On this visit, I gave a talk on the Java to C translator I'm writing. I undertook this interesting project not on a personal whim, my usual driving force, but because the folks at ADaC asked me to do so. Once upon a time, they sold whatever I offered up for sale. Now they represent a host of different companies. They make their own products. And they even commission an occasional work from the likes of me.
ADaC is not alone in being newly assertive. I've written earlier in these pages about the Embedded C++ Technical Committee. (See the Editor's Forum, CUJ, November and December 1996. Also see my article on "Embedded C++,'' CUJ, February 1997.) Well, they're now being inundated with requests to join from companies in Europe and the USA. They weigh carefully the inevitable requests to add features to the dialect they've designed. Put simply, here's a Japanese organization that's taking an active role in determining the software tools that are available to Japanese software developers.
Generalizations are always dangerous, particularly about entire cultures. I avoid any sweeping conclusions from the anecdotal evidence. But I'm happy to see my Japanese friends and colleagues enjoying their recent successes. They're making technology that will benefit all of us who produce code for a living, directly or indirectly.
P.J. Plauger