I've read several comments to my post (and I appreciate them all) and I wanted to respond to several from different folks and possibly get some more feedback.
An additional note, I've spoken to my boss again this morning (or rather, he spoke to me) and I have a small .NET application I will have to write by week's end. I'm not opposed to this as it will give me first hand experience with .NET, which will further my education about it (in fact, he stated this as well). When done, we are going to have another chat so he can get my feedback on it after using it. For Java, I use the Sun Studio Enterprise IDE. With that IDE, I can put a GUI together in an extremely short amount of time. It has a drag-n-drop interface and crates all the methods and classes for you. It also has refactoring functionality allowing the programmer to easily change the name and/or parameters of any method/class/variable and update all occurrences throughout the entire project. Throw in the UML modeling and a programmer can create an entire application from a model, only leaving the task of filling in code for the important stuff (e.g. - the programmer doesn't have to waste time wring all the mundane code involved in creating the various windows and dialogs that might be in the app.). So, in response to how easy it may be to create a GUI using .NET, I can't see how it can be any easier than with a decent Java IDE. To date everything I've developed using this IDE, I have developed on a Linux system, and when needed they run just fine (and look the same - which was the design goal) on my Windoze system. Also, since the IDE looks and works the same on both platforms, there's no confusion when switching development platforms either (except when Windows crashes or does some other weird Windows-ish stuff). Someone said they can't tell the difference between a Java app and a native Windows app. I believe this to be true as well, and I believe my boss agrees that Java GUIs can be made to look just like a native Windows app. His concern relates to how the GUIs function. Personally I've not seen a problem. A Java GUI can be made to look and feel like a Windows native app, or look and feel like a Java app. As for functionality quirks, well I've seen that with LabWindows, Java, native (C/C++) Windows apps, and other stuff. Someone mentioned something about having to use a Java interpreter. The Sun Hot Spot JIT compiler is excellent, configurable, and very fast. The machines we have these days are blazing fast, so to me the "but an interpreted language is slower" argument doesn't really work for me. .NET supporting instrumentation interfaces is a plus, but I'm wondering how good the support is in either Java or .NET. One thing I forgot to ask: what about database support. Particularly MySQL running on a Linux server? (MySQL on Windows sucks, hell even M$ SQL on Windows has issues - go figure) Company wide applications updates can be managed with Java as well by using several different mechanisms - a Java application server and Web Start come to mind. a Tomcat system can do a lot as well. I do not find the Java licensing to be as restrictive as many people have told me it is. I will have to read the licensing for both Java and .NET/C# and compare them. I do believe that M$ has a history and there has been no reason to date to think that they have or will change their basic business philosophy and licensing. With Java, I can take an old Java app and run it with a new version of Java and it works. With M$ products, this is rarely ever the case as they like to lock in customers to a never-ending upgrade path and change "standards" regularly. Someone mentioned broadening the target market by not supporting just Windows. I believe that applications should be written to support as broad a range of platforms as possible, whether for the customer or for internal use. By doing so you do not lock customers or yourself into a single vendor or upgrade path and you run a much lower risk of portability problems in the future. We have had customers ask us about Linux support. Several are using Linux servers and development systems - our embedded software is Unix based after all, so it makes sense to use a Unix system to develop for a Unix system. PGA -- The information contained in this e-mail message is confidential, intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. If the reader of this e-mail is not the intended recipient, or the employee or agent responsible to deliver it to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any review, dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] Paul G. Allen Software Engineer BSIT/SE Quake Global, Inc. 858-277-7290 x285 -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
