From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: * X-Spam-Status: No, score=1.6 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_05,FREEMAIL_FROM, INVALID_MSGID,REPLYTO_WITHOUT_TO_CC autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: fac41,995c28f68b9dc343 X-Google-Attributes: gidfac41,public X-Google-Thread: 109fba,995c28f68b9dc343 X-Google-Attributes: gid109fba,public X-Google-Thread: 1108a1,995c28f68b9dc343 X-Google-Attributes: gid1108a1,public X-Google-Thread: f43e6,995c28f68b9dc343 X-Google-Attributes: gidf43e6,public X-Google-Thread: 107d55,995c28f68b9dc343 X-Google-Attributes: gid107d55,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,995c28f68b9dc343 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: BruceMount@aol.com Subject: Re: The great Java showcase (re: 2nd historic mistake) Date: 1997/08/30 Message-ID: <872943936.21293@dejanews.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 269060592 X-Http-User-Agent: Mozilla/2.0 (Compatible; AOL-IWENG 3.0; Win16) X-Originating-IP-Addr: 152.163.207.37 (ww-tn03.proxy.aol.com) proxy [1.0 ww-tn03.proxy.aol.com:915 (AOL TurboWeb/3.3.2)] Organization: Deja News Posting Service X-Authenticated-Sender: BruceMount@aol.com X-Article-Creation-Date: Sat Aug 30 12:25:36 1997 GMT Reply-To: BruceMount@aol.com Newsgroups: comp.object,comp.software-eng,comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.eiffel,comp.lang.java.tech,comp.lang.c++ Date: 1997-08-30T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Apparently Silvio Calissi wrote (I did not see the posting): > > Paul Johnson wrote in article <5u61fk$e23$5@miranda.gmrc.gecm.com> > >Sun come along with Java, and suddenly it makes more progress in 1 year > than > >Eiffel has in its entire existence, despite being clearly inferior to > >Eiffel on every ground that Eiffel has ever been criticized on. > > Why did companies like SUN, MS, Borland, ... support JAVA instead of another > (better) language. Do you think that they are stupid ? How can they be > ignorant that this leads to the second historic mistake ? > I really like to know some opinions on this. Sun, Microsoft, Borland, etc. ARE in fact very smart companies. However, it is important to realize that their goals may or may not align with your goals as a technologist. The major impetus behind Java is that it allows Sun, Netscape, etc. to challenge the dominance of Microsoft and Intel. Period. They want to do this so that they can make money, which is totally fine with me.....I'd like to make money too. They need a proprietary technology (Java) so that they can control/direct it's future as part of their overall marketing play. I personally think that Sun et. al. has made a brilliant marketing play here. I am not knocking the value (or power) or marketing or making money. Hell, I keep wishing *I'd* invented the Pet Rock. However, I don't think we should kid ourselves about it either. Sun et. al. did NOT propose Java because they thought it was "the best" technology. They proposed it because it was "good enough" and under their control and cause they thought it could fundamentally change the computer marketplace. Eiffel was already in the public domain (thanks Bertrand) and thus would not have served Sun's purpose. As to why Eiffel has not been as successful in the marketplace....I am surprised I even need to answer this. The combined total marketing budgets of Tower, ISE, and SIG is a fraction of what a single large department at Sun might have. Sun runs national ads for Java. Sun can have a publicist at every trade show....can call every tech columnist.....The Eiffel community can't afford that. Actually, what surprises me is that Microsoft hasn't latched on to Eiffel as part of their "slow Java" campaign. Eiffel is in the public domain and they could either build their own compiler or buy one. Given the right promotion, Microsoft could catapult Eiffel into a strong competitor to Java which would be sufficient to slow the moves of Sun and others. --Bruce -------------------==== Posted via Deja News ====----------------------- http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Post to Usenet