On Jun 30, 6:30 am, Casper Bang <[email protected]> wrote: > You're missing an important point however. The philosophy of Java has > always been, and still is, one language+library to rule them all. I > mean, look at the gigantic and clunky mandatory runtime and how bloody > hard it is to inter-operate with the underlying operating system and > other applications. JNI is a freaking nighmare! > > Pragmatists have long since realized that instead of being on the > never ending search for the lowest-common denominator that satisfies > everyone, perhaps it's smarter and easier to embrace the native > platform rather than ignoring it, and give the developer easy access > to pick and choose. Languages like Ruby, Perl, Python, JavaScript and > C are all capable of that. Neither Chrome, Firefox, Pacasa, Google > Earth or any other large known application (other than IDE's) are Java > based.
Uh.. I'm not convinced the philosophy was "one language+library" ... One point to remember is that the lawsuit against Microsoft hinged on JNI as one of the interfaces into the Java platform, a key part of the Java platform, and compatibility-as-tested-by-JCK includes JNI. The other point is that for years now it's been possible to run multiple languages on top of the JVM. The last point is that the JVM doesn't execute "language", it executes "byte codes". Hence the proper way to make your statement is "the philosophy of Java has always been, and still is, one byte-code-execution-design+library to rule them all" That's where I was going to stop but then I noticed you're defining success in terms of whether a large desktop GUI application has been developed with a given platform. But in the sentence before you suggest "languages like Ruby, Perl, .." .. Are there large desktop GUI applications written in Ruby or JavaScript? Also, is desktop GUI applications properly the future of software ?? It seems to me that browser based applications are taking over. Also there could be licensing/legal issues which interfered with Google, Apple, Mozilla, etc developing their prominent desktop GUI applications in Java. The existence of IDE's like Netbeans and the others demonstrate that Java can be a good platform for desktop GUI applications. But Google, by subverting the Java ecosystem with a not- quite-Java-platform named Android, demonstrates they couldn't abide by the Java license as the basis of developing an application they intend to distribute widely. And they've demonstrated a willingness to invest in alternatives to Java. In the case of Apple (who could have developed Safari in Java) .. well, Steve Jobs and his opinion of Java .. Mozilla - they need to distribute under an open source license - I attended a Mozilla Developer Day back in ?2004? and overheard someone talking about being tired of waiting for Sun to free up Java, and ..etc.. > Duke is dead and the captain steering the Java boat is pretty much > lost. It's drifting based on existing momentum but is destined to fall > below C soon even on Tiobe. C'est la vie. We at Sun (I was there for 10+ years) failed to make Java a compelling platform for anything but server side applications. And even there -- with my experience of working with Node.js over the last 6 months, there are up-and-coming alternatives that could render Java moot for server side stuff. When some things die they linger for years and some people continue thinking of the thing as still alive. Aren't there still people writing new COBOL? + David Herron http://davidherron.com http://www.packtpub.com/node-javascript-web-development/book -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
