John Goerzen wrote:
> A valid categorization, I believe. I clearly belong best to #4, but a
> difference is that I believe that Linux will be overtaken by something else.
> Hurd, for instance, when it gets more stable (but we're looking at years
> here).
I think I might second this--I like Linux and all, but I'm starting to
discover various problems with it (well, everything has problems I
suppose...)
> Java has serious problems with speed, bloat, licensing and open-ness. Its
> cross-platform nature prevents it from being useful for certain types of
> programming that are best done in C; for instance, high-usage web servers or
> NFS. I also believe that applets are a fairly odd idea, and are not done in
> a good manner. Most that I've seen have very little use.
I don't believe you're being fair to applets with that last sentence.
Just because so many people create completely worthless applets doesn't
mean it isn't being used in a good way somewhere--like corporate
Intranets that you probably haven't seen.
> On the other hand, I believe Java is almost ideal for GUI design, especially
> for the client in client-server programming. A GUI interface is sitting
> idle over 99% of the time, so speed is not so vital here.
Wierd. This is my biggest (only?) complaint against Java is the very
slow GUI it runs. I run Java servlets and they do wonderfully. But
running a GUI written in Java? No thanks... too slow.
> Cross-platform
> capabilities are a big win; a universal network client can be a big time
> saver for people that need clients on lots of platforms.
Amen.
> I would certainly not use Java for CGI. libapache-mod-perl, FastCGI, etc.
> if necessary.
I would certainly like to see some benchmarks comparing speed of C/C++
written FastCGI verses Java servlets (with a good JIT). I'm pretty sure
servlets outrun anything else, just wondering how it compares there.
And... I recently moved our web sites and clients from Solaris to Linux
boxes. One of our services is written in Java servlets. The move was a
total breeze (tar--ftp--untar). One of our clients had some C++ CGI
programs. It was a week or two before all the problems were ironed out.
Still trying to recompile some of them.
--
Joel Shellman
knOcean Interactive Corporation
http://corp.knOcean.com/
