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Java Creator James Gosling on C# And More
DreamTheater writes: "Java inventor James Gosling says he isn't losing much sleep over Microsoft these days, despite the software giant's effort to stem Java's popularity with its own Java-like language." Gosling talks about other things in this interview, too, like his current project of developing a good IDE.
"You guys (at Microsoft) still don't get it,' because it's sort of Java with reliability, productivity and security deleted"
.NET is a significantly more "productive" language than Java as it is based on a much higher level of abstraction. You can concentrate on immediately doing things your application (Web, Client, etc.) is supposed to DO than the plumbing to get to that stage. Visual Studio.NET is easily the most productive environment I have ever seen, but the article concentrated on C# so...
...security deleted". The .NET approach puts the onus on the developer (you know, the one with the brain) to decide what they want to do, and how they want to do it. In order words don't penalise all developers to script kiddie level, realise there are different problem spaces and different levels of developers and let them figure it out themselves.
.NET, have done since Beta 1, and find it a joy to use. Stability even from the earliest builds simply was amazing (especially considering its an MS product) and brings a lot of the "fun" back to programming (doing stuff instead of writing or finding/using support libraries). But I do have a background in Java, having programmed in it for the past 4 years...put simply, I'll choose which language/environment to use depending upon the project.
Er, no, Sun really don't get it. C# on top of
Microsoft haven't forced people to use the highest abstraction, you can choose to do much lower level things ("unsafe code" for instance). I assume this is what Mr. Gosling is referring to with "reliability,
Yes I program in
...fire extinguisher ready and waiting...
Yup. Here's a link:
http://www.free-soft.org/gpl_history/
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This is the common FUD spread by Microsoft regarding the Java standard, but you forgot one important thing... the truth.
The truth is.. Sun can't protect an open standard. If Java was a totally open standard then Microsoft could "embrace and extend" Java into the ground and destroy it. Sun isn't stupid.
The truth is, Sun makes every step possible to keep Java as standard as possible and documents it VERY VERY VERY well. Go to http://java.sun.com/docs/books and see for yourself. Scroll down, look at the bottom. THAT is the standard.
Sun also goes to great pains to receive feedback from the community and industry. In fact a lot of the EJB and J2EE standards were dictated by application server companies.
What a BIZZARE statement regarding Microsoft. Never mind that Visual Basic - the most widely used programming language - is completely proprietary and Microsoft windows specific. Never mind that Microsoft has perverted every "open" standard they use to add their own extensions (often undocumented) effectively turning them into proprietary protocols. The C# language specification may have been passed off to an obscure standards group (that normally doesn't deal with computer languages) but it hardly opens up all of the APIs which really define .NET and the use of C#. "Embrace and extend" is a standard Microsoft policy - has been for a long time and will continue to be. It is not at all clear that CLR and .NET are open standards as it is given the possibility of hidden patents etc.
Microsoft was caught doing the same thing to Java once they had licensed its use (SUN was pretty naive to have permitted this - maybe they didn't have good enough lawyers ...). As soon as the court found Microsoft guilty, Microsoft announced it would dump Java for their own language which turned out to be C# (that looks and works a lot like Java).
Unless Sun has a rapid change of heart, .NET, C# and the CLR is going to vapourise Sun's marketshare in server applications and enterprise programming userbase due to sheer openness.
While SUN has not given up the trademark "Java", this language is hardly as restricted in use as Microsoft would like to imply. Given the incredible number of licensees of various forms of Java would hardly imply that the user base is scared off by SUN's intellectual property. Indeed, Microsoft's past insidious behavior will haunt their promotion of .NET as the new "open" standard. (Who hasn't gotten over the years burned by Microsoft's business practices ...)
C# has already geared itself up for a dominant position in tomorrow's enterprise development environment
... its ECMA standardisation
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.NET, C# and the CLR is going to vapourise Sun's marketshare in server applications and enterprise programming userbase due to sheer openness.
.NET won't remain an open standard for long.
This reads like Marketing hype worthy of the FUD-Master General himself.
ECMA standardisation is a red herring when it comes to openness. ECMA is a closed organisation. As an individual expert Software Enginner I cannot join and influence language development at ECMA. However I can (and have) joined the JDC and bring my ideas to bear on the development of Java at (http://developer.java.sun.com/). This is open to anybody, including Microsoft.
Furthermore you only have to consider the death of the ECMA standardisation of JavaScript which has been an abysmal failure to seem that, ECMA is not a guarantee of a successful standardisation.
and Microsoft's atypical encouragement of competing implementations
You've obviously not been keeping up on current affairs. Microsoft have been found guilty of anti-competative behaviour in the US and are about to get another nailed in the EU too.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/business/newsi
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/business/newsi
Hardly likely; Microsoft have minimal existing presence (or mindshare) in the heavy weight enterprise sector. As long as they stick to the attitude of stick security, robustness and quality, they never will.
once Microsoft's asserted their dominance in the field,
The only truth, in your entire post, Embrace and Extend.
Perhaps we need another Moderation option (-1 Astrotufer).