Thinking about this, I think I'm curious to know what exactly is meant when someone says a language is "dead". What are some "dead" languages, besides java? Would C be considered "dead"? How about FORTRAN? BASIC? Pascal? PL/1? Algol?
To me, the use of a term like "dead" suggests a life cycle, and I'd say Java, like C, is "mature" but far from dead. It's stopped growing, but that's a good thing - at some point, continued physical growth is more like cancer than development. It's still learning new tricks - people continue to add libraries and uses - and it's still a productive citizen - at least, it's in use all around me. Pascal, you might say, is in retirement. It doesn't do a lot these days, but it sits around telling the kids how it used to do things. BASIC is senescent - it has returned to its childhood, and seems to intend to stay there for the rest of its days. PL/1, I suppose is dead, and I don't know that it's very much missed. This doesn't mean that Java is or should want to be the final word in languages. There are always new children coming along, and with any luck they grow up and become mature and productive citizens, like Python seems to have done. Clojure, we might call a childish language. It's still got a lot to learn, but it shows great promise. Someday, it too will be the language that remembers its former vigor and vitality and contemplates its own mortality - but not yet, it'll say. It'll still have a lot to offer, and it'll shrug its shoulders and take out the garbage and get down to another day's work. All that's far in the future, though - at least six months off, maybe eight. On Fri, Jul 1, 2011 at 2:56 PM, clay <[email protected]> wrote: > It's ridiculous to say that Java is dead. > > When I glance at the Strange Loop conference, Java ecosystem tools are > quite prevalent: Scala is extremely popular, Clojure is popular as > well, Akka is a Scala/Java lib that has some brilliant ideas, neo4j is > very exciting it's attacking some really interesting problems and has > a lot of momentum, and Android is prevalent on the client side. There > is also lots of non-Java tools and languages that are amazing and many > brilliant toolset-agnostic concepts. > > If you are excited about the Strange Loop type stuff, Java (the > ecosystem) is connected to a lot of that and is quite vibrant. If you > have some weird militant hatred for Java, sure there are great > alternatives. > > Java the language itself has stagnated... I'd argue that the Python > language isn't particularly interesting by itself, although many of > the libraries that are being built within the Python space are > absolutely amazing and cutting edge. > > On Jul 1, 10:06 am, robogeek <[email protected]> wrote: > > > 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 Herronhttp://davidherron.comhttp:// > 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. > > -- 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.
