The Static Empire gets Nervous
Sounds to me like James Gosling hears footsteps, and he's getting nervous:
"There have been a number of language coming up lately," noted James Gosling today at Sun's World Wide Education & Research Conference in New York City when asked if Java was in any kind of danger from the newcomers. "PHP and Ruby are perfectly fine systems," he continued, "but they are scripting languages and get their power through specialization: they just generate web pages. But none of them attempt any serious breadth in the application domain and they both have really serious scaling and performance problems."
I'm sure he knows that due to the vast well of experience he has with Ruby, PHP (etc). Apparently, in Gosling's world, Ruby is only used for web pages. Sure James - and Java is only used for applets. How often do they let him out of his lab? His cluelessness abounds:
PHP (for example) is able to make things simpler because it's 100% aimed at web pages, Gosling explained. Whereas with Java, he said, "We have a balancing act: we need the simplicity but we also need power."
Hmm - I see that the phrase "best tool for the job" isn't part of his lexicon. Simplicity? In Java? Yeah, how about that implementation of generics, hmm?
Comments
PHP
[Isaac Gouy] March 11, 2006 21:57:52.000
the advantage of millions of developers and wide acceptance in the marketplace
[] March 11, 2006 23:47:46.000
Hell, I love Ruby just as much (if not more) than the next guy, but we can admit that it is <a href="http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/gp4/benchmark.php?test=all&lang=all">dog slow</a>, can't we? And that maybe it isn't really appropriate for every application? And Ruby is a scripting language. Nothing wrong with calling a spade a spade.
[] March 12, 2006 3:48:21.000
The scripting comments were pretty funny considering that the presentation of almost all Java apps is the web. It's not like Java has any significance on the desktop outside of the corporate office. And I guess his use of scripting is supposed to conjure up bad thoughts in his audience. Too bad that Java's reputation relegates it to sluggishness no matter how fast it really is today. You can thank Swing for that.
But what is just plain embarrasing for him and an obvious lie is his comments about C#:
The Father of Java then dismissed Microsoft's C# as having had potential, but no longer: "We were afraid they were going to do something really creative - but they're hopelessly focused on one platform.
It had potential, but no longer? Bahaha, People will be writing C# long after Java is relegated to COBOL legacy status. And hopefully focused on one platform? Another Bahaha. Not only does Microsoft own the desktop, but they're now outselling all the proprietary Unix vendors combined on the server side. What did he expect, they were going to port it to Solaris?
Who knows why he just wants to put out obvious lies that he never believed ever.
Wide acceptance ~= good choice
[J Pfersich] March 12, 2006 21:28:58.000
the advantage of millions of developers and wide acceptance in the marketplace
Yeah, just like Windoze and C++.
Like I said, Wide acceptance ~= good choice
[J Pfersich] March 12, 2006 21:41:40.000
Not to support Gosling but:
But what is just plain embarrasing for him and an obvious lie is his comments about C#:
Not much different than Scoble and Dave "the Whiner" Winer, mostly hot air and disinformation...
It (C#) had potential, but no longer? Bahaha, People will be writing C# long after Java is relegated to COBOL legacy status. And hopefully focused on one platform? Another Bahaha.
Ah, another Windoze luser. BTW dolt the word is hopelessly not hopefully.
Not only does Microsoft own the desktop, but they're now outselling all the proprietary Unix vendors combined on the server side. What did he expect, they were going to port it to Solaris?
Whatever. Stupid is as stupid does.
Ruby Slow
[Patrick Logan] March 12, 2006 21:57:13.000
Of course the current implementation of Ruby is slow. Python has been slow for a long time and is still useful. There are ways to speed up Python already, and I suspect Ruby is going to catch up.
I'd like to think eventually there will be very good implementations of both. There is no technical reason against them.
[Charlie Bogues] March 12, 2006 22:52:07.000
J Pfersich, sorry, but nobody thinks punk kids like you are cool because you can pop in a Mandrake CD. You can take it to Groklaw with all the other demented losers.
[Isaac Gouy] March 13, 2006 12:10:58.000
James, which job is Smalltalk the best tool for?
Smalltalk best
[ James Robertson] March 13, 2006 13:25:08.000
Comment by James Robertson
The "value statement" we usually give on "what is Smalltalk best at" is applications where the requirements are not nailed down, and are likely to change rapidly due to changing business conditions. One example (although hardly the only one) would be the Kapital application from JP Morgan - they adapt to changes in the market that their risk analysts deal with as they arise, and are able to offer products in that space for sale much faster than their competition. Here's a link to a talk given on that subject.
[] March 13, 2006 15:21:33.000
Yeah, that moron, its not like he'd know about dynamic langauges from writing a version of EMACS or anything. Oh, wait.
He didn't learn much
[ James Robertson] March 13, 2006 15:28:50.000
Comment by James Robertson
Based on his utterly uninformed natterings on dynamic languages, he either forgot everything he ever knew, or came to stupid conclusions about it.
Wrong again Charlie
[J Pfersich] March 13, 2006 15:48:00.050
Sorry Charlie, you haven't a clue about what you're talking about. I'm not even sure which comment you're ranting about. Stay on topic. Hmmm, chance approaching 99 percent that he must be a Windoze luser.
Re: Isaac
[J Pfersich] March 14, 2006 1:27:21.624
Isaac, I've found that Smalltalk is excellent for modeling and simulations.
hysterical responses to gossip
[Isaac Gouy] March 14, 2006 15:40:30.377
James "Sounds to me like James Gosling hears footsteps, and he's getting nervous"
afaict James Gosling wasn't the one whipped into a hysterical frenzy over a second-hand report of a short answer to a question from the audience, at the end of a keynote address.
Here's another version of the purported comment - I wonder what he really said.
[Charlie Bogues] March 15, 2006 20:56:51.381
J Pfersich, I'm not surprised you had a hard time understanding what I was talking about. Most of you desktop linux kiddies are short bus riding mental midgets. But don't worry, when Linux becomes mainstream in a hundred years or so you'll be able to move over to the Hurd in order to feel elite. Until then, you can circle jerk with all of the other losers over how many distros you've used.