Tuesday, January 21, 2003

Library Changes != Upgrade Cycle Manageability #66 is bugging me. I'm sorry, but changes to the Java library don't count as upgrades, in my book. Where are the improvements to the JVM for multiple language support? Where is bettering the language? Does Sun think they've got it all perfect? Not a chance! The science deserves better than Java. It's good, but we are not there yet. 5:53:00 PM

If backing by a large, cash-rich, aggressive, technically savvy company with a vision is the necessary component for success, then why has Linux succeeded so well, and OS/2 failed so badly? I won't dispute the fact that having that definitely helps, but that's only one component to the story. He's right about the vendor-neutrality, but I think as time goes on we'll see a consolidation in vendors in the Java space and an expansion of vendors in the CLI space as both Mono and Portable.NET achieve some measure of success in the commercial marketplace, so ultimately that'll be a wash. In the end, it comes down to one thing: which platform is your boss, the guy with the checkbook, wanting to back today? [The Mountain of Worthless Information] I think there are intense technical reasons why Java (and its VM) is in danger of losing, here...NET is designed from the first to support multiple languages.  You can say that it can be done with Java, and it can, but .NET is evolving pretty rapidly at this point...there are people working on functional languages and other more esoteric stuff for .NET.  This is important because the primary reason these environments have failed is the lack of widespread library support.  That is arguably no longer true -- there are some pretty massive libraries available for LISP, OCaml and so forth at this point, but they're hard to find, hard to integrate together.  With .NET everything can use everything else.  That's important beyond belief.  It's what's left Java leapfrog ahead so quickly -- a clean binary standard that lets things play together, within reason. .NET is poised to move ahead. Will anybody ever produce a different programming environment for .NET?  I suppose Borland will build something, but we may not see very many others.  We'll see language plugins, I guess. 12:45:54 AM

Hacking to... In the spirit of Mr. Glass -- Sasha's AirdrawnDagger, which if you're into a little intelligent electronic music, is the first truly interesting new thing I've heard in a long time.  And maybe that's just because I'm kind of unplugged from it all. There's too much to choose from out there in the world.  Too many ways to approach a problem, and it gets confusing at times.  Really, the only thing we can do is pick one (even at random), start the ball rolling, and see what develops. It's a lot more complicated to do code than it was 10 years ago.  Some things are easier, and some things are harder.  We're doing things today, by ourselves, that a team of a hundred people wouldn't have attempted a decade ago.  Trying to see your way through everything, while you're still at the beginning, is becoming a lost cause, and is a progressively more lost art. Take heart, though -- even the best (and that isn't me) need to refine what they do. Insight comes as you work.  Just start.  It'll happen for you.  12:36:21 AM