On 06/30/2011 01:08 PM, Phil wrote:
I think this (albeit lightweight) article on The Register adds some
food for thought:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/06/30/java_misses_the_point_under_oracle/
I think the article's premise is right. Java has fallen too far
behind. Freeze the language spec at Java 7 and focus on the JVM and
functional languages.
Sorry if I'm going to be really harsh, but it's my character. I must say
I have a strong prejudice against general media, as I don't trust them
when they talk about the Big Bang, the Shuttle, or the latest fuel-cell
technology. Figure it out when they talk about software. But I think I
can work against my prejudices and I admit I could find a good article
about software, after all. But when I find an inception such as:
"Oracle's roadmap for Javas 7 and 8 shows it recognizes the world is
pulling away and leaving Java with last-century concepts and ideals.
Java 7 is meant to set the foundation for a cloud-friendly platform, but
the real cloud-ready features won't make an appearance until Java 8 in
2013 at the earliest.
While Larry and company can't be blamed for the years of stagnation
suffered by both the platform and language under Sun Microsystems, the
problem faced isn't that Java lacks the technology to work nicely in the
cloud: the problem is, as ever, one of perception.
Java is either not "enterprise" enough for cloud computing – apparently
lacking the required widgets – or it's too enterprisey and therefore not
cool enough to join the likes of Ruby and Python."
"The world is pulling away?" Yeah, look at Tiobe. And what the heck is
saying about the cloud? What's a "widget" for the cloud? Sorry, I won't
read it further.
So, back to us. Ruby and Python and Groovy and all the dynamic languages
are where they were a few years ago and the respective communities was
claiming that they were going to take the world by storm. Scala is
definitely the most interesting stuff (not by chance, is statically
typed), but it's still 0.xx% of share. Let's see whether it grows.
So, what are we talking about?
And, pardon me, why a supposedly objective and scientifically-attituded
community should still comment Gosling's points as he's a sort of prophet?
Coming to Groovy, since we're talking about personal experience. It has
been the first language I started seriously studying and practicing a
couple of years ago, not for replacing Java but because I was curious to
see whether it could solve some DSL-like tasks. For me it has been a
total delusion. Useless even in parts that it was supposed to be
helpful. At present time only a few lines of Groovy survive in a Maven
plugin for building an Android project, but just because I didn't find
the time to replace it with a simpler solution.
Of corse, this is subjective and I'm totally sure that many guys are
doing very smart things with Ruby, Groovy, and what else. And that
they're better at it than with Java. Fine. Just don't call yourself "the
world".
--
Fabrizio Giudici - Java Architect, Project Manager
Tidalwave s.a.s. - "We make Java work. Everywhere."
java.net/blog/fabriziogiudici - www.tidalwave.it/people
[email protected]
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