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From: Geoff Bull <geoff@research.canon.com.au>
Subject: Re: C/C++ programmer giving Ada95 a chance -- writing an emulator.
Date: 2000/03/30
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Robert Dewar wrote:
>  and of course there does not even exist a standard for Java,

???

http://www.javasoft.com/docs/books/jls/html/index.html
http://java.sun.com/aboutJava/communityprocess/maintenance/JLS/jls2draft.pdf

I guess you mean that the standard does not exist in the sense 
that it is not approved by a standards body such as ISO.
Obviously ISO sanctioned standards are better than proprietary standards.
Of course, some will argue that a proprietary standard isn't a standard 
... I think we've had that discussion before.

Anyway, getting an ISO standard for Java is not going to solve the
numerous shortcomings in the language, e.g.:
    only form of abstraction is class (which is heap allocated)
    everything must be an object even when that is not appropriate
    no unsigned arithmetic (that causes a HUGE number of bugs)
    no enumerated/abstract type
    no fixed point arithmetic
    no range checking except for arrays
    no operator overloading (boy does that make using my FixedPoint
       class ugly)
    no support for large programs (let's start with package renaming!)
    no rep clauses - have to do raw bit bashing
    finalizers aren't guaranteed to be ever called (limiting them
       to rather specialised uses)
    poor standard style
    difficulty interfacing to other languages
    etc etc etc (I write lots of Java so have discovered a lot of problems)