MacHack To Go On Despite Conflict With WWDC's New Schedule

by , 11:00 AM EST, March 26th, 2003

The folks managing MacHack have announced that the show will go on. MacHack is a long-running independent developer gathering for Mac users that takes place in Dearborn, Michigan in the third week of June. This year, MacHack is scheduled to run from June 19th until the 21st. Normally, that schedule comes several weeks after Apple's own developer conference, the World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC), which traditionally takes place in May. Apple announced last week that the WWDC was going to be bumped back to June 23rd, two days after MacHack is scheduled to end, so that the company could give developers a pre-release version of Panther, the next version of Mac OS X.

Despite the potential conflict between the two events, MacHack has said that the gathering will take place as scheduled. Organizers will also try to work with attendees who wish to attend both events.

MacHack and the WWDC are different kinds of events, with different purposes. MacHack is focused more around the nitty-gritty of coding, while Apple's WWDC is a larger, more formal event where Apple works with developers directly in an attempt to give those developers access to the latest tools and resources the company has. While the WWDC is larger, there are many developers who attend both events, in part for specialized MacHack events such as "Best Hack Contest," and intimate sessions with interesting guest speakers. The different nature of both events is what has allowed both to thrive, even in past years when the Mac platform was at its lowest point in terms of expectations for the future.

We have included the entire press release from MacHack organizers:

Spunky MacHack stays on Calendar Despite Apple WWDC Move

Where does a 600-pound gorilla sit? Anywhere it wants, is the punch line to that one. What does a small, focused and vital programmers' conference do when Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference suddenly reschedules to an adjacent date? MacHack, the Advanced Developers Hands-On Conference, keeps its date and tries to make things work for all attendees.

Leadership and management of MacHack announced today that it was retaining its traditional dates in the third week in June, and will meet June 19-21 as scheduled.

"Speakers, sessions, travel plans, people have had arrangements in place for months now," Dave Koziol, conference chairman said. "Our dates may make it difficult for some to attend both conferences, and we intend to work with them to find ways for them to continue to participate. MacHack offers many things to attendees beyond what they can learn at WWDC. There is plenty of expertise in a lot of areas committed to a strong MacHack."

MacHack organizers intend to continue offering attendees the unique experience that the show has rendered to developers since the early days of Macintosh success with System 3.2. The show continues to garner fierce loyalty from its supporters.

Miro Jurisic, a five-year attendee of the show, said "I wouldn't be who I am today if it weren't for MacHack, and I don't want to lose that opportunity to learn and interact. I would reschedule every other event in order to attend MacHack."

MacHack traditionally consists of three days of intense sessions and off-the-cuff development of innovative programs that are showcased at the Friday night "Best Hack Contest."

Avi Drissman, this year's MacHack Sessions chairman, said the experiences at MacHack allow developers to truly reap the benefits of Apple hardware and software, and give expert users a chance to go beyond customary marketed capabilities of Apple products.

"What Apple says at the Worldwide Developer Conference is all nice theory, how things should work; what our sessions do is delve into how things _do_ work. Sessions like these provide the return on investment for companies and individuals," Drissman said.

Technical papers formatted in academic style are also part of the MacHack experience. Each year, 10 or more formal papers give in depth looks at current developer issues. This year's papers already under development include safeguarding use of commercial wireless networks, hacking possibilities of Mac OS X, extending Palm OS 5, and building POSIX features in a Mac way.

Scott Boyd, co-founder of The MacHax Group, and ringleader of the annual Best Hack Contest, loves the creative chaos of the contest, and the long-term friendships that result.

"Nowhere but MacHack can you sit down with and get to know such an amazing array of experts who so freely share what they know," Boyd said. "There's nothing like working with talented people to pull off a great hack!"

Past entries have ranged from the bizarre and twisted to the simply-useful. Rendering the whole screen in ASCII in real-time, a shooting gallery of icons during boot time, NetBunny, Pong in Open Firmware, and even Undo in the Finder (back when that was unheard of).

"Collaboration in an environment where there's always somebody with the right answer, mixed with a bit of caffeinated, sleep-deprived time pressure, is a sure-fire way to make friends, cement working relationships, and have a blast," said Boyd.

This year's MacHack will continue the proud tradition of wackiness and intensity that attendees have praised since the early days of Juggler and MultiFinder.Up to date information on the conference can be found at

You can get more information on MacHack at the organization's Web site.

The Mac Observer Spin:

We are fans of MacHack, and are glad that this year's event will go on. Those attending both the WWDC and MacHack will no doubt have an extremely interesting 10-day stretch.

MacHack