Christopher Smith wrote:
Paul G. Allen wrote:
Once a programmer has learned how to derive algorithms, decompose a
problem, and all the other things Stewart mentioned, if he knows one
complex language, he can learn another in a short time. It's basically
a simple matter of learning a new syntax.
I think this is true for a certain class of programmers. I have,
however, seen people who simply can't get their head out of the paradigm
of a given language.
I actually should have made the distinction between software engineers and
programmers. A programmer generally has a limited knowledge and possibly
experience relating to programming languages and programming. A software
engineer has gone beyond the simplicity of just writing programs in language A
or B. A software engineer has learned the afore mentioned concepts, knows how
to engineer a system, and has enough command over the concepts and programming
to go beyond the paradigm of a given language.
In addition there are a lot of "programmers" and "software engineers" out there that
really aren't. Much of this is due to languages like VB that allow anyone to become a "programmer".
So, I think there is a distinct difference between a programmer and a software engineer,
and we often (myself included) tend to lump them all together under the title
"programmer". There are also many so-called programmers and engineers out there
that simply aren't, but that is true in any field. It's simply more profound in the more
technical ones.
It has far better multi-platform support. It works better and more
reliably under Linux. They usually release a JRE/JDK for the latest
Java spec. before Sun does.
My experience has been that they release after Sun, but maybe that's
just been unfortunate timing on my part. I will say I've found that the
"better and more reliably under Linux" doesn't seem to be quite so true
these days. Ever since JDK 1.4 Sun has devoted a lot of resources to
making the JDK work well on Linux, and I'd say it's starting to really
pay off.
Sun's 1.4 does NOT work as well under Linux as IBMs, nor is it as complete.
Nor did 1.3. I tried both, and in both cases IBMs worked better and was more
complete. I have more than a couple applications that simply would not work
using the Sun implementation due to missing classes, interfaces, or an entire
portion of an API.
PGA
--
Paul G. Allen
Owner, Sr. Engineer, Security Specialist
Random Logic/Dream Park
www.randomlogic.com
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[email protected]
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