Now blogging at diego's weblog. See you over there!

This pisses me off slightly, which accounts for the more sarcastic tone. In case you were wondering. :-)

I was just reading Vasanth's entry "study reveals not-so-hot java" in which he happily perpetuates myths that for some reason keep sticking to the Java platform. The only point that is half-true in his list is that Java is not managed by an open standards body. I know that many people are not happy with the JSRs, but it's half way there, and Eclipse keeps gaining momentum (memory refresh: Eclipse started about three years ago).

As for his other "points": I'd suggest this: the next time you hear someone say things like "Java is slow on the desktop" your should ask:

• compared to what? Assembly code? and
• Where, exactly is your proof? How about a few examples of non-performing Java desktop applications?

I have a number of examples that actually prove quite the opposite to the slow-on-the-desktop claim.

"Write once, run anywhere not true" he says. Really? Then how is it possible that I could write a client application that was deployed successfully on everything between Windows, Linux, MacOS, and even OS/2? Without a single line of platform-dependent code? Is it magic? I can't remember any chanting being involved...

And as far as those much discussed "scalability problems", hey, isn't eBay's use of J2EE enough proof that Java can scale?

Case closed.

Categories: soft.dev
Posted by diego on September 12 2003 at 8:35 PM