During the last year at Racon, Christian had a leading role in a project which was initially launched with the goal to replace the procedural (RPC) client-server architecture with a truly object-oriented approach accross all platforms (Windows, Unix, MVS).
The project was challenging from both a technical as well as a political perspective. Christian had the opportunity to learn Java in 1996 when few people were aware of it's existence. He was involved in the evaluation of other exciting technologies, like Object Cobol for MVS, or Smalltalk. He had the opportunity to visit a number of companies who had successfully implemented Object Orientation, and discuss design questions with leading software architects.
In a later stage of the project, the focus shifted from technical research to political tactics. Racon was ordered to cooperate with another software development subsidiary of Raiffeisen, which already had a framework based on C++, and a commercial product built on top of it. Due to the size and visibility of the project, both parties tried to lead the cooperation. Christian participated in several rounds of meetings discussing scenarios and roles, but left Racon during this time.
- Smalltalk
- Java
- Object-Cobol
- C++
- OMT