I did a ton of Java (coding, training people, large scale deployments) and Java has enterprise grade features. For large apps/clients, not much can beat it these days.
If you need to staff a team for a sizeable project, not much choice either. Things like this: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/informatics/procurement/calls_running/index_en.htm where you see things like in this page ( http://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:380314-2013:TEXT:EN:HTML) : II.2.1) Total quantity or scope: 9 600 person-years (indicative, non-binding) for all lots for the maximum possible duration of the framework contracts. I guess there are not enough Pharo-aware people on the planet to fit this :-) There, the choice is going to be Java. Now, except when working with decent tools like Jetbrains' IntelliJ (don't get me started with Eclipse), it is really annoying to type. I am even a reseller of these products FWIW. Other than that it is a fine language. And cool people do cool things with it, like AOT (Ahead of Time) compilers. http://www.excelsior-usa.com/jet.html or the JRockitVM (from the ashes of BEA) http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/jrockit/overview/index.html If we could get an instrumented VM like that, well... For manifesting ideas out of my head, I do prefer Pharo. As a self-employed individual, more power to me. As a startup junkie, more power to me. If I need a Java or .NET guy, I've plenty of contacts in cheap countries who do work very very well. And f*ck Ruby on Rails. Now, I said it. As I am currently reading Andres Valloud books, and trying out the exercises, man, what do I know about how to make decent enough code. Close to nothing it seems. That is what is great in Pharo, a community of great minds. That you do not find often in a huge crowd as the chatter is too loud. </rant> Phil
