Re: The great Java showcase (re: 2nd historic mistake)

["Brett J. Stonier" <bretts@brightwood.com>]

Paul Johnson wrote:

> Avis did rather well with "we try harder".  I don't think you can read
>
> too much into this.

Ah, but did they say "We try harder than those lazy Hertz guys."?  "We
try harder" is a positive statement that doesn't create defensiveness
and hostility.

> They were not competing in a standards war.
>
> Imagine that the Japanese cars, for some strange reason, had to be
> right-hand-drive models whereas the US standard is left-hand-drive (I
> do hope I've got that the right way round).  How many cars would they
> have sold then?

Exactly what do you mean by a standards war?  A fight to become the
standard programming language of choice?  I don't see that as a
standards war, like CORBA vs. COM, where one winning out precludes the
use of another.  Java getting really popular shouldn't keep people who
want to from using Eiffel.  Did you mean something else?

> So what do we do?  Shut up and be smug about how we know so much
> better?
>
> Java, I notice, is being hyped as an improvement on C++ (which it is).
>
> Why can't we hype Eiffel as an improvement on both?

No, if Eiffel is as good as you guys say, you *need* to hype it.  You
just need to do it more diplomatically.  I'd suggest something along the
lines of "Java is great for certain purposes, but Eiffel is better in
these situations for these reasons."  What I see come from Meyer and
others is more like "Java is a piece of crap, and Eiffel is the key to
the universe."  Cocky, sour grapes like that are not going to win *me*
over.  Most of the respondents to my original reply have given Java some
credit, saying things like "Well, Java's not evil; its a pretty good
language.  Its just that Eiffel is much better."  Run with *that*
attitude!

Brett S.
http://www.mtjeff.com/~calvin/devhbook