IBM’s neat trick with Hannover

Although I have not yet had chance to try IBM’s workplace client and have only seen marketing material around Hannover,  IBM seem to be about to pull off a neat trick – building a modern flexible platform and still delivering compatibility with existing Notes applications.  This is something that Microsoft consistently fails to do with their collaborative platforms, and their approach may be justified if it were the only way to keep driving improvements at a reasonable pace, however IBM seem to have found a “third way”.  Jeff Eisen’s post The Road to Hannover listed the 10 achievements that impressed me:

1. Run any application unmodified in the Workplace Client
2. ALL Notes applications run
3. Existing applications run unmodified in new user interface
4. Run existing Notes/Domino applications unmodified
5. All current APIs Supported!
6. APIs unchanged
7. no rip and replace
8. Preserves investment in software
9. As always, strong commitment to backward compatbility
10. Composite applications … preserve investment in Notes applications