Re: Java momentum slowing ?

[Bob@nospam]

In article <372f0ed9.104817048@news2.ibm.net>, jmarten@ibm.net says...
 
>But i'm still thinking that there's something wrong with Java. I
>particularly don't understand why there are not so much Java applets
>on the Web pages, where the portability of Java is the most efficient.
>There were more applets 2 years ago. 
>

Thinking that there is something wrong with Java, does not mean there
is something wrong with it :)

As for applets, I think it becuase applets take more time to load, and
the more logic you add to the, the more btye code, and the longer it
takes to download. 

And also there are other technologies to do something similar to 
applets (ie. logic that execute inside the browser) such as javaScript 
(which have nothing to do with Java). Even plain HTML can do 
the job just fine for data entry from the client. Also browsers a
re not yet standardized in term of JVM support.

>I'm just telling that there are signs that the momentum is slowing,
>not that Java suddenly disappeared.I had many relatives trying to hack
>some Java code 2 years ago. But they all stopped. Perhaps for
>different reasons. 
>

Ok, I don't know what your relatives do for living and why they stopped :) 
but where I am, there is plenty of demand for Java, and it is increasing, 
and alot of it is on the server side, but also alot of GUI is now being 
written in swing, and on windows also. I know of a large company in this
area where they even forbid anyone at the company to write in C or C++ any
new applications! The manager there is in love with Java.

If you need to write multithreaded applications on the server side, the 
choices are to either use C++ and some external threads library 
with all the problems of porting issues from one platform to another, 
or use Java. (Ada would be a great choice also for server side applications, 
but for some reason it is not used here). Java is better integrated with
Corba also, and many who write corba apps in Java say it is easier than
C++ with corba.

> Instead, Linux is now under the spotlight and i can tell you that it
>sells like hell. Around me, they are all trying to install a Linux
>distrib (at home and at work) and trying to master the GNU tools.
>Intranet servers based on Linux are growing like mushrooms. 
>

Sure. Linux is also spreading very fast. GNU/Linux will be the 
dominant OS in few short year, and windows will be something of the
past, a big buggy bloated legacy complicated C++ code for someone 
to maintain for many years to come with service pack after service pack.

Java+Linux are a powerfull combination too. A Solid open free OS to 
run your JVM's on. what more can one ask for? plenty of development tools 
also.  Java on Linux is still behnind that on windows, but so is 
every other platform. Even Solaris is behind WIndows in this area. 
HotSPot was just released by SUN, and it is for windows only. Not 
even for Solaris. 

(Actually I also think Gnat+Linux are a very powerfull combination, and
I would like to see more Ada application on Linux. There is a window here
for Ada as Linux becomes more used. I do not think Ada on windows has much
of chance as it would have on an open system like Unix.

>On another front, it seems that M$ has stopped all Java developments
>and is pushing VC++ 6.0 very hard. 
>

Yes. MS has killed J++, (I read that few people only used it) and 
it is moving away from Java. They decided they can't win the Java 
fight. They will come up with something similar to Java, but not 
call it Java, and whatever it is, it will only work on windows as 
usuall, and some fish will take bait, but by then Linux and Java would
have had a solid standing in the industry.

>So, like Ada, Java will have to find its niche. 
>

Java is niche? you must be joking. right? tell that to IBM who is investing
billions on Java, tell that to Cisco who is writing all of their network
management SNMP code in Java, tell that to any of the large companies who
are now writing most of their new applications in Java. Try to look at the
programming jobs out there and see for yourself.

I personally think Ada is a better language than Java, but Java is still
a very good language, and is an improvment over C and C++ for sure. I have
programmed in all languages for many years. I am much more productive in
Java than in C or C++, and my applications have less bugs (same effect I have
when I program in Ada compared to C/C++).  This is not just my experience,
but also many other programmers have seen the same effect. 
 
cheers,
Bob