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Public Standards: C# 2, Java 0

TheAncientHacker writes "While Java coders wait for SUN to be willing to accept any public standards for the Java language and runtime, Microsoft's C# and its underlying CLI, already standardized by ECMA, are about to get a second certification. This time by by the granddaddy of certification groups, the ISO."

459 comments

  1. What's up Sun??!! by ChaoticChaos · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I love Java and earn a living coding J2EE systems, but Sun's posture on not creating a public standard for Java is just ridiculous.

    It immediately creates the notion that Java is a proprietary language.

    Hard to believe that Microsoft's new language has two public standards and Sun's language has none. Is something wrong with this picture? Microsoft is starting to appear as a reasonable and responsible company and Sun appears as stumbling around in the dark.

    1. Re:What's up Sun??!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's because it is a proprietary language.

      Bonehead. How can you get paid for using it and not know anything about it?

    2. Re:What's up Sun??!! by Richard+W.M.+Jones · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It immediately creates the notion that Java is a proprietary language.

      Which it is, or might as well be. Until gcj came along (and it's not there yet) there were no free implementations of Java, and any development you did could at any time have been razed had Sun decided not to give their JVM away for free.

      Compare to C - multiple free, high-quality implementations. Compare to Perl - one extremely high-quality free implementation and it's a considerably better thought out and more powerful language to boot.

      Rich.

      Rich.

    3. Re:What's up Sun??!! by Anonvmous+Coward · · Score: 1

      "Microsoft is starting to appear as a reasonable and responsible company and Sun appears as stumbling around in the dark."

      Makes you wonder why that Borg icon's there, duddn't it?

    4. Re:What's up Sun??!! by elemur · · Score: 2, Informative

      Not true.. Kaffe has been around for a long time.. Blackdown has had their Java VM for a while too. Those are just two open source ones off the top of my head.

      Other VMs include IBM's.. very good quality and speed there. Its free, but not open source. Even Microsoft has their VM, though its not worth much anymore.

      How does Sun have the only JVM again?

    5. Re:What's up Sun??!! by robbyjo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Hard to believe that Microsoft's new language has two public standards and Sun's language has none. Is something wrong with this picture? Microsoft is starting to appear as a reasonable and responsible company and Sun appears as stumbling around in the dark.

      Well, it's all about control. Sun fears that once it place the language into standard bodies, it loses the control over the language. Whereas, as you may notice, there are lots of other language features need to be implemented. One of them is genericity / templates -- that is due out for Java 1.5. If Sun put Java into standard, it cannot make the modification easily.

      Moreover, Sun also fears of dominant groups (read: Microsoft) may overwhelm or sway the language away from their original intents.

      --

      --
      Error 500: Internal sig error
    6. Re:What's up Sun??!! by Jord · · Score: 4, Insightful
      There are multiple free implementations of Java. Have been for years. Sun could attempt to stop providing a JVM but that would not stop the community. In fact Sun's implementation of the JVM is one of the slower versions out there.

      Java may appear to be proprietary to the non-informed but the programmers know better.

    7. Re:What's up Sun??!! by be-fan · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Eh. Microsoft's new language is about as "standard" as C++ without the Standard Library. It's a castrated version of a real language. Further, C# _as_a_language_ isn't anything special. It's a cut-down version of C++ with native support for properties and delegation. The whole point of Java and .NET aren't the C# and Java languages, but the huge class libraries. Until those are standardized, ISO C# doesn't mean much.

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
    8. Re:What's up Sun??!! by Surak · · Score: 2, Informative

      Which it is, or might as well be. Until gcj came along (and it's not there yet) there were no free implementations of Java, and any development you did could at any time have been razed had Sun decided not to give their JVM away for free.

      Ummm...Blackdown?

    9. Re:What's up Sun??!! by Richard+W.M.+Jones · · Score: 4, Interesting

      You've obviously not tried to use Kaffe for any serious work.

      Blackdown is a port of Sun's JVM.

      You might have mentioned IBM's JVM, but that's just as proprietary as Sun's.

      Remember that the JVM includes libraries, and without a complete set of working, compatible, debugged libraries your Java development is basically fscked.

      Rich.

    10. Re:What's up Sun??!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Well the thing is, most of MS's "evil" is because they are big. Any small evil thing they do is blown up huge by the huge impact it has. And especially here by the just plain outright hatred that emasses here.

      In fact I find that Sun and Apple are frequently quite a bit MORE evil if you remove the entire market share from the equation and look at their actions more philosophically.

      Relentless pursuit of fans, maniacal leaders that spew verbal FUD at every oppourtunity, closing down the clone markets, faking JRE test software to make your 4x slower JRE seem as good as the competitions, selectively applying JRE compatibility rules to various friends/competitors and on and on.

      As far as Sun stumbling in the dark, that have done that for JAVA since day one. The early development tools were practically non-existant. And until recently, installing their JRE on Windows required the user to hand edit their environment to add a path to the JRE to it to make it work, even from the windows GUI. How much harder could they make it on themselves and their customers? I always thought that they blew it with their incredable poor dev. environment for JAVA. Compared to developing VB or VC++ on windows it was like using rocks and sticks. UNIX programmers were right at home with the sytem as it of course mimicked typical UNIX development (No suprise, they're SUN!)

      Though MS took advantage of JAVA in ways they probably shouldn't have, Windows developers people were starving for good JAVA tools on Windows and MS stepped up to the plate while Sun didn't. If Sun had provided a Visual Studio type dev environment from day one for all three platforms I believe a HUGE army of Windows developers would have jumped on it and Sun's JAVA would have taken off strong, instead it limped then and it still limps today.

      I am particularly perterbed by Sun's lack of support (or rather lack of EXTREME support) for Java as it is my daily duty at work to find usable cross platform tools for our software dev. needs and though we have actually used some JAVA with some success, it has been a lot more dissapointing as a dev. environment and as a platform than it should be.

    11. Re:What's up Sun??!! by mrcparker · · Score: 2, Informative

      blackdown is proprietary.

    12. Re:What's up Sun??!! by chrisseaton · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Your C++ program might not need the standard library, but your C# program will. Everything in C# is reflected and so on, so if you don't have the .NET framework with the Type object, for example, you can't have any types, which leaves you screwed. With no .NET framework you can't have objects, methods, or anything.

    13. Re:What's up Sun??!! by sheldon · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Java is a proprietary language.

      The reason why Sun has not submitted Java to any public standards body is because they would no longer be in control of validating whether an implementation conforms to the standard.

      What's that mean? It means Microsoft could write a version of Java and run it through the standards body and have it stamped "Approved by ISO as Standard Java" or whatever.

      That's what Sun doesn't want to happen.

      "Microsoft is starting to appear as a reasonable and responsible company and Sun appears as stumbling around in the dark."

      Sun is stumbling around in the dark. Their marketing strategy has become... "Well we're not Microsoft." They've lost whatever technical leads they once had, and now try to appeal to emotions to get business.

      Emotions and business do not make strong partners over the long haul. McNealy needs to step down from Sun.

    14. Re:What's up Sun??!! by elemur · · Score: 3, Informative

      True.. I agree in general with Kaffe, though I will say its better than it used to be.

      Blackdown is a port.. but managed in an open process and environment.

      IBM's is certainly proprietary.. but that wasn't the complaint. The issue was a non-SUN JVM.. and IBM gives that to you.

      Here is a google category

      http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Progra mm ing/Languages/Java/Implementations/?il=1

      This lists many different JVM's available.. some open source.. some commercial. If you want a non-SUN JVM.. go to town.

    15. Re:What's up Sun??!! by Billly+Gates · · Score: 3, Informative

      Have you heard the phrase by critics "Write once port everywhere"?

      Sun is afraid of vendor lock in creating incompatible libraries that would result in proving Microsoft and the critics right when stating that java isn't portable. Today java is dead on the client so this issue is not as important. If java took off on the internet for client apps and then each vendor had their own libraries the result would be catastrophic.

      The situation has improved recently and its mostly portable now but it has hurt sun. Sun is in an odd situation. They can release it and watch as vendors create proprietary extensions or keep it and hope more people use it.

    16. Re:What's up Sun??!! by MSG · · Score: 4, Informative

      Blackdown isn't a free implementation, it's a port of Sun's JVM to Linux. It bears the same license.

    17. Re:What's up Sun??!! by Coward+the+Anonymous · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Well, the ECMA (and soon ISO) standard is for the CLI also. This means that Type and all that good stuff will be there. But you won't have things like Windows.Forms or ADO or any of the really useful libraries.

      --
      -- Jason
    18. Re:What's up Sun??!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Compare to Perl - one extremely high-quality free implementation and it's a considerably better thought out and more powerful language to boot.

      Wow, I didn't know you could boot Perl!

    19. Re:What's up Sun??!! by jedidiah · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's really quite irrelevant if a compiler or VM is proprietary if it implements an open protocol. The fact that competing vendors implement the same specification is far more compelling than any number of standards certificates.

      It's the multiple compatable implementations that are meaningful/useful, not the publications of some committee.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    20. Re:What's up Sun??!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Compare to Perl - one extremely high-quality free implementation and it's a considerably better thought out and more powerful language to boot.

      You can't be serious. Perl is considerably better and more powerful than Java? What planet do you write code on? Perl is crap.

    21. Re:What's up Sun??!! by Arthur+Dent · · Score: 1
      Java dead on the client?
      On the contrary, I think that with the release of 1.4, Java's just getting started.

      See this (no affiliation - just a satisfied customer) for an example.

    22. Re:What's up Sun??!! by jsprat · · Score: 1

      Blackdown is a port of Sun's JVM, not a new implementation.

    23. Re:What's up Sun??!! by ChannelX · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Compare to Perl - one extremely high-quality free implementation and it's a considerably better thought out and more powerful language to boot.This is a ridiculous statement. Both languages are powerful and each has its place. To say that Perl better thought-out is just plain ridiculous. Perl is a mess.

      --
      My blog: http://jkratz.dyndns.org/~jason/blog/
    24. Re:What's up Sun??!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's why the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) has been standardized as well. You can get both those standards and write yourself a C# compiler and virtual machine to execute the code with. That is exactly what Mono and Portable.NET are doing.

    25. Re:What's up Sun??!! by rawdot · · Score: 1
      To say that Perl better thought-out is just plain ridiculous. Perl is a mess.

      Yes, but it's our mess, and we love it. :-)

    26. Re:What's up Sun??!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      because microsoft IS the evil empire you pawn

    27. Re:What's up Sun??!! by Anonvmous+Coward · · Score: 1

      "because microsoft IS the evil empire you pawn"

      The Borg weren't evil.

    28. Re:What's up Sun??!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're right, C# without a library doesn't mean much. However, if you read the article, you'll notice that this isn't a single standard being accepting. This will be the third and fourth. The CLI, which represents the foundation for .NET and itself contains several thousand classes and is fully functional on it's own, has already been standardized by ECMA and the ISO plans to announce it as a standard this month as well. So C# has it's standard library.

    29. Re:What's up Sun??!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ....and wordperfect isn't done. At version 10 its just getting started.

    30. Re:What's up Sun??!! by NanoGator · · Score: 1

      "because microsoft IS the evil empire you pawn "

      You're on the 'Hating Microsoft is Cool' bandwagon, and he is the pawn?

      No wonder you don't have a registerred nick, you failed the clue-exam.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    31. Re:What's up Sun??!! by Compenguin · · Score: 1

      Or microsoft could just use the japitools to show compatibility.

      Furthermore, although not adoped by ISO or the EMCA, it is a defacto standard supportrd by others like IBM and right now a GNU implementation is in the works.

    32. Re:What's up Sun??!! by deranged+unix+nut · · Score: 1

      Have you heard the phrase by critics "Write once port everywhere"?

      The way I head it, and said it constantly when I had to write a few small java apps, is: "Write once, Debug everywhere."

      Sure, it was an earlier version of Java, but the same app had three different behaviors on three different platforms!

    33. Re:What's up Sun??!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      aspectj.org

    34. Re:What's up Sun??!! by miguel · · Score: 4, Informative

      Those particular components that you mention (Type) are part of the ECMA and ISO standard efforts.

      So in fact the submission covers C#, a set of base class libraries and a potential execution environment (you can compile to native code if you choose instead)

      Miguel

    35. Re:What's up Sun??!! by tarvin · · Score: 2, Insightful
      <<It immediately creates the notion that Java is a proprietary language.
      <Which it is, or might as well be.

      Agree.

      Unfortunately, java is pretty much "run once - run nowhere". Of course, all Slashdotters have an up-to-date JRE, but the fact is that JREs are a rare sight. It's easy to blame Microsoft for not distributing java with Windows any more. But seriously: When even Linux distributions have trouble distributing a java runtime enviroment, then there is _probably_ something wrong with the licenses associated with java technologies.

      What's worse: Because Java is nowhere to be found, there is lack of consensus about where to put java libraries, how to handle classpaths, etc.

      When I think of the non-programming-related software I use regularly, _no_ Java-based software comes to mind. (Except for a few JSP-based web-pages if that counts as software.)

      I'm not very optimistic about Javas future, I'm afraid. Which is sad: It's a beautiful language (which will be even more beautiful when it get generics).

      Fortunately, there are other good technologies than Java. A combination of Python (when speed is not that important), C/C++ (when you need speed and control of every bit) and perhaps C# (in the future) is actually all I ask for.

    36. Re:What's up Sun??!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      C# and .net ide blow away any of the reasonably low cost or free java development environments.

      Sun decided that total control over the java language is more important than number of users, number of programmers, and number of commercial applications.

      A bad choice by sun. I'd rather have 1,000,000 programmers using a language even with minor incompatibilities amongst different platforms than have rigid progress blocking control over the language.

      Is there an open source C# compatabile class library initiative going yet for non-Microsoft operating systems?

      And the real question: Will microsoft's purchase of virtual machine emulators for win32 lead to a win32 compatability layer for the new os with a new system api?

    37. Re:What's up Sun??!! by hpavc · · Score: 1

      agreed, i think its terribly offensive to the borg everytime i see the protrayal of bill gates having been brought into the collective. clearly the borg would not embrace his uniqueness.

      --
      members are seeing something, your seeing an ad
    38. Re:What's up Sun??!! by dup_account · · Score: 1

      So... Even though Java doesn't have a standard, groups are able to create ports of it.... Where's the OS port of c#?

    39. Re:What's up Sun??!! by TheLastUser · · Score: 1

      Too true. Who the heck cares what ISO and that bad skin group, ECMA, think?

      What do I care, as long as I don't get locked to a single vendor and the env works for my app.

    40. Re:What's up Sun??!! by LilGuy · · Score: 3, Funny

      Code quality changes from planet to planet? It's a godsend that NASA ever anything past the moon!

      --

      You're nothing; like me.
    41. Re:What's up Sun??!! by TeraCo · · Score: 1
      What do I care, as long as I don't get locked to a single vendor and the env works for my app.

      You mean, like Sun?

      --
      Not Meta-modding due to apathy.
    42. Re:What's up Sun??!! by jfx32 · · Score: 1
    43. Re:What's up Sun??!! by motorhead · · Score: 0

      There is more than one way to smile when you say that.

      --
      Employee Of the Month - Cyberdyne Systems Corporation - September 1997
    44. Re:What's up Sun??!! by BCW2 · · Score: 1

      Whats this I hear about the pound sign # being called sharp? This just another attempt by microsoft to "pound" their own bastardized version of a real language down everyones throat. Remember what they did to Java? Proprietary crap that won't work on anything but there own stuff.

      Give them an inch and they will take the world.

      --
      Professional Politicians are not the solution, they ARE the problem.
    45. Re:What's up Sun??!! by JamesOfTheDesert · · Score: 1
      How does Sun have the only JVM again?

      Java(tm) is a proprietary language. That other JVMs exist is due the good graces of Sun. Such good grace may be withdrawn at any time.

      --

      Java is the blue pill
      Choose the red pill
    46. Re:What's up Sun??!! by Mark+Pitman · · Score: 1

      And here: DotGNU

    47. Re:What's up Sun??!! by Drakonian · · Score: 1
      If java took off on the internet for client apps and then each vendor had their own libraries the result would be catastrophic.

      I think it might just do this! I've heard of this new thing called the Java Applet. It's kinda like a lightweight application ... but here is the killer - you can embed it in Web pages! So you can run executable code on web pages for any different platform. Of course it will have some restrictions, sort of putting it in a sandbox, but just think of all the things it can do!

      Sorry, couldn't resist. ;)

      --
      Random is the New Order.
    48. Re:What's up Sun??!! by N1KO · · Score: 1

      Yeah, but it hasn't taken off because flash can do a lot of the stuff java would do on a typical web page and it isn't increadibly slow!

    49. Re:What's up Sun??!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In fact I find that Sun and Apple are frequently quite a bit MORE evil if you remove the entire market share from the equation and look at their actions more philosophically.

      Similarly I find that thieves are frequently quite a bit MORE evil than mass murderers, if you remove the entire dead people thing from the equation and look at their actions more philosophically.

    50. Re:What's up Sun??!! by Camel+Pilot · · Score: 1

      Perl is a mess

      Perhaps I am twisted but I have always found Perl to do what I expect it to do.

    51. Re:What's up Sun??!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      and the british, who get shot by the americans and the iraqis. How can it be trolling when it's true?

    52. Re:What's up Sun??!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      perl *is* thought out, and continues to be. By default, that makes it "better thought out language" than java. Java was original a pet project, then became a religious expression, and then a marketing scheme and just recently, if you squint real hard you can detect a whiff of thought in the JSR process but that represents more of an argument, or free association (to be kind) than a thought process.

      Or do you maintain that the EJB spec quailfies as rational thought?

    53. Re:What's up Sun??!! by TheLastUser · · Score: 1

      Yeah, like Sun.

      The reality of Sun's "closed" Java is more open than Microsoft's "open standards" CLR. I can get a fully functional enterprise Java enviroment from IBM, Sun, Oracle, or even GNU. With .Net I can get it from Microsoft and that's it, so who cares if its stamped by ISO?

    54. Re:What's up Sun??!! by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      Actually the <applet> tag has been depreciated in the latest relase of html according to w3c. Go look it up if you do not believe me. Its dead and not even the w2c is supporting it now.

    55. Re:What's up Sun??!! by TeraCo · · Score: 1
      Well, there is no reason why anyone can't make their own .NET CLR.. much like mono is doing.

      You also ignore the fact that the GNU javac is ass.

      --
      Not Meta-modding due to apathy.
    56. Re:What's up Sun??!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fucking ignorant Merkin cunt. No wonder the world hates you...

    57. Re:What's up Sun??!! by TheLastUser · · Score: 1

      Well, there is no reason why anyone can't make their own .NET CLR.. much like mono is doing.

      There no reason that anyone can't wash my car for me either, but until it happens you'll forgive if I don't get too excited.

      Java is effectively less vendor-centric than .NET despite its lack of a stamp by ECMA or ISO.

    58. Re:What's up Sun??!! by KewlPC · · Score: 1

      You're probably just trolling, but here goes: In music it is used to indicate that a note is sharp, for example F#. Since C is not just a programming language but is also a musical note, so is C#. Get it?

    59. Re:What's up Sun??!! by jdkane · · Score: 1
      Such good grace may be withdrawn at any time.

      and along with such a withdrawl, Java would lose a lot of market share. I doubt the good graces will end anytime soon. Not if Sun wants Java to remain competitive.

    60. Re:What's up Sun??!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "If Sun put Java into standard, it cannot make the modification easily."

      It's the other way around. Many features were added to the C++ standard in a reasonable amount of time. Java additions have been slow to arrive.

  2. Standards? by DeadSea · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Number of times per release you expect companies to purposfully break standards to hurt competitors: Microsoft 2, Sun 0

    What good are open standards if your implementation is the only one? In addition to Sun, IBM has a Java implementation and there is an open source implementation and library set that is getting pretty good.

    Actually, I wouldn't put it past Sun to break their standards either, but what good is Slashdot if you can't bash Microsoft.

    1. Re:Standards? by LanikMueller · · Score: 5, Informative

      Ever heard of Mono? Ever heard of Apache.Net? You need to do some more homework....MS only implemented .Net on their platform, but other groups are doing so on other platforms.

    2. Re:Standards? by Glock27 · · Score: 1
      What good are open standards if your implementation is the only one?

      True, plus now that ISO has accepted the base version of C#, I'm sure Microsoft will busily add some new keywords and other syntactic incompatibilities in order to lock people in to the MS implementation - all in the name of "innovation" and "customer convenience" of course... ;-)

      --
      Galileo: "The Earth revolves around the Sun!"
      Score: -1 100% Flamebait
    3. Re:Standards? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Don't forget Rotor - the shared source CLI - Rotor's license is for non-commercial use only, but its license doesn't taint your skills, so you can learn off of Rotor and make your own GNU/GPL implementation.

      That isn't so bad now is it.

    4. Re:Standards? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't forget dotgnu as well....

    5. Re:Standards? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh sorry, I forgot. :-)

    6. Re:Standards? by AndroidCat · · Score: 1

      And don't forget a few patents are in the works. (Slashdot story a little while back about those.)

      --
      One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
    7. Re:Standards? by aggieben · · Score: 1

      see previous post. Also, even if MS's implementation was the only one (which it's not...what internet are you from?) open standards are still good; it creates the possibility for another implementation, it allows more (and better) criticism of a technology, it is helpful to those who develop systems that need to interact, etc, etc, etc.

      --
      Don't become a regular here, you will become retarded. -- Yoda the Retard
    8. Re:Standards? by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1
      Ever heard of Mono? Ever heard of Apache.Net? You need to do some more homework....MS only implemented .Net on their platform, but other groups are doing so on other platforms.

      None of the others have a working implementation of the windowing parts of .NET, just some of the server-side parts. Fine if all you want to write are web apps, but the JRE runs happily on 4 platforms I regularly use, and allows me to run the same graphical apps on all of them (the fact that I don't, and the only apps I do run on all of them are C/C++ command line or X apps is beside the point).

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    9. Re:Standards? by Angry+White+Guy · · Score: 1

      I have two words for you: one-way compatibility. Remember Kerebos? Microsoft tools for Unix, etc? This will not allow other OS'es to interact with .NET servers, but will allow .NET servers to interact with other servers. Same old story, now patented and ISO approved!

      --
      You think that I'm crazy, you should see this guy!
    10. Re:Standards? by peterdaly · · Score: 1

      .Net on other platforms (mono, etc) are no different than the IBM JDK/JRE, JRocket, etc.

      -Pete

    11. Re:Standards? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > (the fact that I don't, and the only apps I do
      > run on all of them are C/C++ command line or X
      > apps is beside the point).

      No, it is the point w/respect to Java GUI apps.

    12. Re:Standards? by overbored · · Score: 2, Informative

      Actually, Microsoft did release another .NET runtime called Rotor. It's shared-source and cross-platform. They made the implementation run on FreeBSD.

    13. Re:Standards? by tshak · · Score: 1

      MS has a Windows and BSD implementation. But that's not the point, the point is that when it becomes standardized others can implement and/or interoperate with it. As already mentioned, there are multiple projects underway for non-Windows platforms.

      --

      There is no longer anything that can be done with computers that is nontrivial and clearly legal. -- Paul Phillips
    14. Re:Standards? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mono is supporting Windows.forms.
      http://www.go-mono.com/winforms.ht ml

    15. Re:Standards? by Caoch93 · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Ever heard of Mono? Ever heard of Apache.Net? You need to do some more homework....MS only implemented .Net on their platform, but other groups are doing so on other platforms.

      A CIL interpreter does not a .NET environment make. It's the APIs that are considered "common" and are shipped with MS .NET that are also relevent. Mono doesn't support WinForms, for example. Does Apache.Net? Since WinForms is the de facto GUI kit for MS .NET programs, good luck trying to get it to run on Mono. Last I checked, Mono was refusing to implement WinForms. Thus, Mono is refusing to have seamless portability from MS .NET for all applications.

    16. Re:Standards? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      http://www.go-mono.com/winforms.html

      way to research your claims.

    17. Re:Standards? by Caoch93 · · Score: 1
      Hrm. Mine apologies. I must be going on old data, since I could have sowrn I read something on their site about refusing to deal with WinForms and how even .NET developers hated the API. I could have drank from the wrong Kool-Aid bowl today.

      Of course, that was going on a reading from several weeks back...things might have changed in that time.

    18. Re:Standards? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That is very, very incorrect.

      There is GTK# and others which work very well.

      You're not limited to Windows.Forms. You can get GTK# working on Windows and Linux and use the same program you created under both just like Java.

    19. Re:Standards? by reanjr · · Score: 1

      I can not think of one possible reason to HATE System.Windows.Forms. I can see some places where it could be a bit better, etc., but to hate it would require an extraordinarily stodgy personality.

    20. Re:Standards? by reanjr · · Score: 1

      People keep on forgetting that a developer does not have to use any new extensions to the CLI or C#. They can continue using whatever is still fully cross-platform.

      One might bring up the argument about MS's Java implementation extensions and how no one realized when they were using MS extended or Java base functionality. But I have two points to add to anyone who would make that comment:

      1. Java was not complete at the time. There was serious developer desire for more functionality and MS gave them that.

      2. The ISO (or even ECMA) standard makes it quite simple to determine what is and is not MS extended. And I'm sure someone could fairly easily (or already has done so) write a utility to check for compatibility with the standard.

    21. Re:Standards? by pyrrho · · Score: 1

      see me when one of them actually runs the same applications!

      --

      -pyrrho

    22. Re:Standards? by frank_adrian314159 · · Score: 1
      What good are open standards if your implementation is the only one?

      Well, I'd think the Perl guys would disagree with you. So would the Ruby and Python folks. The bottom line is that there are many quasi-propriatary languages/systems out there. Do you really think you could get a new extension into Perl (i.e., make your updated Perl code run on other people's system) without Larry Wall's OK?

      Even though I'm not a Microsoft fan, they have done a responsible thing going to ECMA and ISO. I wish others in the "Open" source comunity would do the same...

      --
      That is all.
  3. As noted before and since, C# and CLI are ... by burgburgburg · · Score: 1

    only a subset of the .Net Framework that makes it possible to share data with applications on other operating systems. No software for defining a GUI, no database access. Pesky little things like that.

    1. Re:As noted before and since, C# and CLI are ... by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      Not to mention people who use C# on Windows do it because of the .net runtime which makes all the languages integrate together. Also the built libraries are a big improvement from the awefull MFC and the win32 api.

      This is patented by Microsoft and also you do not get this benefit of this when using c# on other platforms because .net is not ported. There is no way to share objects like their is in the one Microsoft way.

      I think what this is, is marketware for PHBs who are concerned that c#.net might mean expensive proprietary lock-in.

      Microsoft will claim they are an open standard unlike that proprietary Java and mention borland is also switching to c#/net. Then after using the .net framework later on will be sucked into renting their own software for the privledge of running .net.

      Perfect trap. C# maybe open but .net?

    2. Re:As noted before and since, C# and CLI are ... by Com2Kid · · Score: 1
      • Not to mention people who use C# on Windows do it because of the .net runtime which makes all the languages integrate together. Also the built libraries are a big improvement from the awefull MFC and the win32 api.


      This is getting confusing. When I talked to a guy at MS who does .Net development he told me that .Net is basicaly a fancy standardized way of doing XML markup.

      *sigh*
    3. Re:As noted before and since, C# and CLI are ... by GnrcMan · · Score: 1

      Your friend is on crack. .Net is the moniker given to a whole bunch of technologies, including C#, the CLR. About the only thing .Net *isn't* is a fancy standardized way of doing XML Markup...or maybe it is, I dunno.

      At any rate, MS has thankfully cooled off on sticking .NET after everything. It was horribly confusing.

    4. Re:As noted before and since, C# and CLI are ... by PCM2 · · Score: 1
      This is getting confusing. When I talked to a guy at MS who does .Net development he told me that .Net is basicaly a fancy standardized way of doing XML markup.
      I think this is some lingering confusion from the early days of the .Net thrust, when Microsoft was calling just about everything .Net.

      I've heard Steve Ballmer, too, referring to .Net as basically a way to facilitate inter-application compatibility using XML. But what I think he's talking about is the .Net applications effort -- using an XML format for Office.Net, etc. What we're talking about here could be more properly called the .Net Development Environment/Platform, and that's considerably more complicated.

      I think it's safe to chalk a lot of this confusion up to "baffle 'em with bullshit" marketing designed to scare customers into tightening their grip around the arm of their buddy, the almighty Vendor. If you want a straight answer, next time you ask a Microsoft guy, try asking him not "What is .Net" but "What's the benefit of the .Net Development Environment?" and see what answer you get.

      --
      Breakfast served all day!
    5. Re:As noted before and since, C# and CLI are ... by Com2Kid · · Score: 1
      *sigh* confused as fuck. . . .

      I was job shadowing the dude who does quality engineering or some item such as that for internal MS stuff. Annnnyways. I was asking tons of questions about .Net, on the web I had heard it as being everything from the grandiose freedom from limitations solution to the all encompassing vender lock in dead end to end all dead ends.

      • What's the benefit of the .Net Development Environment?"


      Isn't a development environment just a fancy GUI with a nice command completion button and quick easy access to a compiler? Once again, confusing as hell. :`(

      I get that the CLI is (besides an ALREADY TAKEN TLA ) supposed to enable easy use of multiple languages and what not, but what .Net itself is is quite confusing. Then again I distinctly remember it being a programming language thingy, but then the head programming guru over on the ArsT forums about, err, well, in 99 or 00 or so, told me to fuck off and that I was wrong it was NOT that, and indeed I checked all instances of that had been taken down from the MS website, but now,

      *sigh*

      Once more reason I am doing CompEng not CompSci. Programming is a bitch. . . . Especially when politics get involved. (uh, I thought we where all supposed to be nerds and that we HATED politics damnit!!! WHAT IDIOT LET THE POLITICS SEEP INTO THE FIELD)
  4. Nice to say patented standards by Billly+Gates · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The Sco lawsuit agaisn't IBM is proof that anything that looks the original is subject to copyright claim. The main argument used is that SCO is the owner of SysV technology.

    C# is not only copyrighted but also patented.

    You can iso it and declare it as free as you want to but its still proprietary in my book for this reason. Likewise you can get a pig and put lipstick, makeup, eyeshadow, and a thong on it and call it Britney Spears but its still a pig.

    1. Re:Nice to say patented standards by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, but it could be a Brittany Speers with 14 breasts...

    2. Re:Nice to say patented standards by Mendax+Veritas · · Score: 5, Funny
      you can get a pig and put lipstick, makeup, eyeshadow, and a thong on it and call it Britney Spears but its still a pig.
      That, however, is a distinction without a difference.
    3. Re:Nice to say patented standards by aggieben · · Score: 1

      Actually, I think if you got a pig and put lipstick, makeup, eyeshadow, and a thong on it and called it "Britney"....it would be Britney Spears. Isn't that what her record label did?

      --
      Don't become a regular here, you will become retarded. -- Yoda the Retard
    4. Re:Nice to say patented standards by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Say...uhhhh...you don't happen to have a picture of this pig, do you?

    5. Re:Nice to say patented standards by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you can get a pig and put lipstick, makeup, eyeshadow, and a thong on it and call it Britney Spears but its still a pig.

      And if you take Britney Spears and wipe all the shit off her face he can call her a pig and you're pretty much correct.

      Odd that. Kinda similar how you can take Natalie Portman, strip her naked and pertify her and there's still hot grits down your pants. Just one of those things.

    6. Re:Nice to say patented standards by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Yeah, but it could be a Brittany Speers with 14 breasts...

      I pitty the record label picking up the tab on those implants.

    7. Re:Nice to say patented standards by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 1
      Yeah, but it could be a Brittany Speers with 14 breasts...

      Mmmm... teats

    8. Re:Nice to say patented standards by Jim_Hawkins · · Score: 1
      Likewise you can get a pig and put lipstick, makeup, eyeshadow, and a thong on it and call it Britney Spears but its still a pig.

      HA! That's what you think!

    9. Re:Nice to say patented standards by miguel · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Regarding the patent of the ISO/ECMA documents, you might want to read what Jim Miller (one of the inventors listed in the patent said): here.

      I quote:


      Beppe,

      As one of the inventors on that patent as well as the person heading up
      the standardization efforts for the CLI, I'd like to explain why I've
      never felt the two are in conflict.

      The ECMA process requires that all patents held by member companies that
      are essential for implementing its standards are available under
      "reasonable and non-discriminatory (RAND) terms" for the purpose of
      implementing those Standards. This is the normal condition used in all
      International Standards organizations, including both ECMA and ISO.

      But Microsoft (and our co-sponsors, Intel and Hewlett-Packard) went
      further and have agreed that our patents essential to implementing C#
      and CLI will be available on a "royalty-free and otherwise RAND" basis
      for this purpose.

      Furthermore, our release of the Rotor source code base with a specific
      license on its use gives wide use to our patents for a particular
      (non-commercial) purpose, and as we explicitly state we are open to
      additional licenses for other purposes.

      --Jim

    10. Re:Nice to say patented standards by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So.

      Linux is trademarked and copyrighted by Linus Torvalds.

  5. oh well by AssFace · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I guess I'll just stop coding in it.

    that's too bad really - I liked java.

    seriously - why should we care? does the code allow me to do what I want? yes.
    and done - I don't care about no stinking standards evaluation.

    --

    There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
    1. Re:oh well by stratjakt · · Score: 2, Insightful

      >> seriously - why should we care? does the code allow me to do what I want? yes.

      Because J3EE could complete deprecate what you just wrote, and now you have to completely rewrite all of your applications to keep up.

      That's why business/government cares about standards. They dont give a rats ass about open sources or free as in unpaid software.

      They want to know that the x thousand manhours writing custom code for their outfit wont be 'obsolete' because some academic propellerhead decides its obsolete. Look how much COBOL, FORTRAN, and ADA is still in use.

      --
      I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
    2. Re:oh well by jedidiah · · Score: 1

      J3EE could still do that even with the "official standards". Microsoft is rather adept at this sort of manuever (as others have stated).

      Any standard that Microsoft is at the center of will always suffer from the network effects caused by the NBM crowd. This will allow Microsoft to easily hijack or fork the standard once the base has been accepted by some standards body.

      When contemplating Microsoft and standards, just remember BSD Sockets and Kerberos.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
  6. If we're keeping score by ledbetter · · Score: 0, Troll

    People using java: 4,000,000
    People using .net: 2

    it doesn't need standards, it is the standard!

    1. Re:If we're keeping score by ergo98 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Most Microsoft shops have or will switch to .NET (it's a natural progression), and of course Microsoft shops comprise the majority of "shops" out there. Indeed the most telling evidence of .NETs stunning market presence can be seen at your local bookshop: Already there are probably 2x the number of .NET books than there are Java books (seriously, go take a look).

    2. Re:If we're keeping score by ChaoticChaos · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Could the fact that there are twice as many books for C# indicate that it's twice as hard to use? ;-)

    3. Re:If we're keeping score by PseudoThink · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Many of my college classes were taught using Java as the programming language, so I had a few years of experience with it in school. I've been using .NET since it was released, and it's been so much easier programming in VB.NET and C# than it ever was in Java, it's not even funny. Despite their problems, the Visual Studio .NET IDE and MSDN Library have no equivalent. They are totally awesome.

    4. Re:If we're keeping score by papadiablo · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Well add one more to .NET because I've been using it for the past 4 months instead of C/C++ or Java.

      Anytime a new technology is introduced there are always going to be more people using the old technology. That doesn't make the old technology better, nor does being new make the new technology better. Your point isn't valid considering how new .NET is and how long Java has been around. If it were then everyone would still be buying VHS tapes instead of DVDs just because it was the "standard" when DVDs were introduced.

    5. Re:If we're keeping score by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You might want to tell that to my customers, who are busy hiring us out for J2EE work and looking at Microsoft as a desktop OS and Office Suite vendor only.

    6. Re:If we're keeping score by Jord · · Score: 1

      If you depend upon the IDE to determine what is a good language then please stay with MS. Real programmers dont need you.

    7. Re:If we're keeping score by Soul-Burn666 · · Score: 1

      That just reminded of a book about MFC I saw a couple of days ago. We're aren't talking about doorstops anymore, we're talking about the great wall!

      --
      ^_^
    8. Re:If we're keeping score by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, they do have an equal, superior actually. Cocoa and Project Builder.

    9. Re:If we're keeping score by dasmegabyte · · Score: 1

      If you know Java, you can learn C# in about thirty seconds. In fact, the major differences aren't in syntax (of which there are only a handful, like forcing a break on the last line of a switch, and using lock() instead of synchronized()), they're in the API itself.

      I love Java, but for what people want our applications to do, and for the way we want them to interact with their systems which are 100% windows based and always will be (unfortunately), the .NET framework makes more sense. The ubiquity of the CLI means we can almost totally ignore testing on individual windows versions and still have a nice, secure, abstracted system.

      --
      Hey freaks: now you're ju
    10. Re:If we're keeping score by druske · · Score: 1
      People using java: 4,000,000
      People using .net: 2
      Wow, I'm half of the people using .NET! I didn't realize I was such an early adopter!

      On the other hand, my employer is starting to get questions about Linux support from some large customers. One answer is Mono... but my gut tells me that as soon as Microsoft feels secure with the penetration of C# and the .NET framework, they're going to have their lawyers go gunning for anything that will let CIL programs run on non-Windows platforms. I'm not alone in these suspicions.

      In the end, it is possible (and a little ironic) that the FUD about .NET's cross-platform future will cause us to abandon .NET for some projects.
    11. Re:If we're keeping score by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ah yes, REAL programmers only need machine code!

      That borders on a racist remark. It is at minimum incredibly stupid. Thank you for draging /. down yet another notch.

    12. Re:If we're keeping score by TheAwfulTruth · · Score: 1

      Actually it would be more like "Twice as useful". The .NET libraries are huge. It takes more space to describe all of it, but that's just because there is more for you to use in one place without having to write it yourself or drag in dozens of third party libs.

      --
      Contrary to popular belief, coding is not all free blow-jobs and beer. Those things cost MONEY!
    13. Re:If we're keeping score by b17bmbr · · Score: 1

      while it might be easier programmig in windows, that is because MFC sucked. how is it that there are better toolkits, i.e. Qt, for windows, than microsoft's own? but, .NET is still platform dependent. i defy anyone to prove otherwise. c# is simply a language, and the CLI is simply a VM. BFD. all the things windows are still locked up and inaccessible via anyhting other than on windows platform.

      if you jumed so quickly from java to c# and VB, you either learned nothing or learned programming theory which is applicable to every language. having examined both, there is no advantage of c# to java, excpet tighter integration into the windows platform.

      --
      My problem? I was perfectly gruntled, until some numbnuts came by and dissed me.
    14. Re:If we're keeping score by jwmiii · · Score: 1

      Most Microsoft shops have or will switch to .NET because Microsoft is forcing them to do so.

    15. Re:If we're keeping score by ADRA · · Score: 1

      I see like 30 Books published by Microsoft press, does that count? I mean, documentation wise, Microsoft is pushing a hell of a lot harder than Sun did when it comes to books. A friend went to a seminar and every participant who went got a free book just for staying to the end. The Number of books, and the distribution is just an illusion. .NET will not be the natural progression for all since the CLR changes the rules of the game. I see some jumping ship over it. Not a hell of a lot, but to start to work with.

      --
      Bye!
    16. Re:If we're keeping score by rabidcow · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If you depend upon the IDE to determine what is a good language then please stay with MS. Real programmers dont need you.

      Ok, this is somewhat true, but a good IDE is like having power tools instead of having to use the manual versions. Yes, you can cut wood with a hand saw, you can drive screws with a manual screwdriver, you can install a roof without a nail gun, but why would you want to?

      A sufficiently better IDE can make language differences irrelevant. I'd be willing to drive 30 minutes out of my way, to an inferior location, to cut 100 boards with a chop saw instead of slaving away for weeks with a hand saw. Similarly, I'm willing to use a slightly inferior language if it has an excellent IDE.

    17. Re:If we're keeping score by EricTheGreen · · Score: 1


      and of course Microsoft shops comprise the majority of "shops" out there.


      OK, I'll bite, primarily because I can't believe this has gotten a +5 moderation....

      I challenge you to demonstrate the truth of the above statement, in regarding MS being the primary application development target/toolset of choice for said "shops".

      User desktops, most definitely. Application development, I'm not buying at all. And one does most definitely not imply the other.

    18. Re:If we're keeping score by JohnwheeleR · · Score: 1, Informative
      ...and of course Microsoft shops comprise the majority of "shops" out there.

      I beg to differ you idiot. Before posting so authoritatively why don't you do some homework? While its hard to find concrete evidence that shows which language has market dominance, there are some hints out there:

      Doing a search for jobs here will show you that there are 4268 jobs with "Java" in their descriptions with only 366 jobs matching "C#" and 17 jobs matching ".NET"

      This shows a graph of the languages in use on sourceforge.

      ...evidence of .NETs stunning market presence can be seen at your local bookshop: Already there are probably 2x the number of .NET books than there are Java books (seriously, go take a look).

      Oh yeah clown? The only thing "stunning" here is your lunacy. Why don't you go take a look at the bookstore and search "Java Programming" then ".NET programming?" I get 601 books for .NET and 1463 for Java. That is over 2x more books for Java.

      What bothers me even more than Microsoft's shitty products and nonexistant business ethics is that they have a slew of retarded users who can't provide even a shred of supporting evidence to back the claims they make. Its always stupid shit like "I use MS because no one ever got fired for it" or, "... because fonts look ugly in X". In this case you have an guy pulling shit out of ass that is not even true.

      What in the hell was it in his post that prompted you to mod him up so much SlashdotXP?

    19. Re:If we're keeping score by humanx · · Score: 0

      Twice as hard to sell?

    20. Re:If we're keeping score by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      boy aren't you a pissy bitch

      firstly boy genius MS shops aren't primarily .NET , .Net's still relatively new. Try doing a search for C++ windows dev. , VB , and .NET

      using sourceforge isn't relevant either as the OSS community is far less likely to use MS centric tools / languages than the general programming community - didn't you realize that ??

    21. Re:If we're keeping score by Ortado · · Score: 1

      http://www.borland.com/delphi/
      http://www.borland .com/cbuilder/
      http://www.borland.com/jbuilder/
      http://www.borland.com/kylix/

      Hmmmmmmm.... I don't know about you, but between Borland's products and MS's, I would say that Borland beats MS hands down, it's not even funny. Oh, and if I remember correctly, Delphi is the first independent path to .Net, as well as C++ Builder. So why would I use MS's when I can use one that I know is great, the compilers are amazing, and I can accually program in multiple languages for one program. Oh, and i don't have to pay an arm and a leg to get it.

      Hmmmmm....

    22. Re:If we're keeping score by JohnwheeleR · · Score: 1

      boy aren't you a pissy bitch ok... sure... Anonymous Coward

    23. Re:If we're keeping score by nate1138 · · Score: 1

      Damn right. Borland rocks. Hell, Borland pretty much invented the modern "visual" IDE. Ever notice how any visual studio product looks just like the borland equivalent that came out last year?

      --
      Where's my lobbyist? Right here.
    24. Re:If we're keeping score by ergo98 · · Score: 1

      I beg to differ you idiot.

      Brilliant debating technique! Clearly you must be some sort of super-intelligent hybrid human/robot!

      Oh yeah clown?

      Cutting! You, sir, must be the president of your local debating club.

      Doing a search for jobs here [dice.com] will show you that there are 4268 jobs with "Java" in their descriptions with only 366 jobs matching "C#" and 17 jobs matching ".NET"

      I'm sorry, does "Microsoft shop" mean "C# programmer"? I'm afraid you have a gross inability to read. The point, stunningly clear to those who's vision isn't clouded by anti-Microsoft rage, is that there are loads of Microsoft shops out there that will eventually, to a pretty high degree, switch to .NET.

      Why don't you go take a look at the bookstore [amazon.com] and search "Java Programming" then ".NET programming?" I get 601 books for .NET and 1463 for Java. That is over 2x more books for Java.

      Ignoring your absurd search criteria, searching on ".NET" yields 2229 hits, whereas "Java" yields 2075 hits. Ooooh, must hurt to get burned by your own crappy 'evidence'. Of course I was never talking about historical books written and sitting in a warehouse somewhere (by that metric I would have expected Amazon to have many many multiples more Java books as they've had years to be written, while .NET books are relatively hot off the press. I'm quite surprized to find that's not the case), but what is actually stocked at your local brick and mortar book shop (you know: books that they think they might sell) : At my local shops Java has perhaps 1/4 the number of books of .NET. This was a simple observation in regards to a ridiculous claim that no one uses Java (I actually was recently at a bookstore and was very surprized to see the number of .NET books), so I'm quite surprized to see you swagger in here, linguistic disabilities in full evidence, shooting off your guns all over the place.

      What bothers me even more than Microsoft's shitty products blah blah blah blah blah blah blah...

      Funny you say that, as what bothers me even more are contrarians who believe that everything positive about Microsoft (as a professional software developer I'm well aware of the huge number of Microsoft shops out there) must simply be untrue, bleating complete nonsense as "evidence". Blah.

    25. Re:If we're keeping score by reanjr · · Score: 1

      So they're a bit behind the times, big deal. Any company that doesn't at least take a serious look at comparing .NET and Java has some mismanagement going on.

    26. Re:If we're keeping score by reanjr · · Score: 1

      Nonetheless, there is absolutely no competition in the IDE market. I also wonder if anyone has tried mapping Java classes directly to .NET classes just so they can use the VS.NET IDE...

    27. Re:If we're keeping score by JohnwheeleR · · Score: 1
      Brilliant debating technique! Clearly you must be some sort of super-intelligent hybrid human/robot!

      God that was lame. Actually I had no intention of debating this with you since your original post made it clear that you are an illogical ass without any facts anyway. My intent was simply to flame your stupidity.

      Ignoring your absurd search criteria, searching on ".NET" yields 2229 hits, whereas "Java" yields 2075 hits.

      Its "Java Programming" and ".NET Programming." Refine your search dickhead.

      While we are at it, let me take a stab I forgot to at your original post. This so called "natural progression" of shops switching over to dot net is nothing of the sort. It is called being fucked in the ass by a company that covers up technology failure after technology failure with marketing hype. They did it with COM, DCOM, COM+, DNA, ActiveX, Visual Basic, etc and they will do it with .NET too sucker. I'll sit back and code in Java on Linux while you apply your marketing patches ;).

    28. Re:If we're keeping score by reanjr · · Score: 1

      I've written a number of applications (mostly trivial, a few more complex) for my workplace that run on both linux and windows using .NET. I'd say that's platform independent. What's your definition of platform independent?

    29. Re:If we're keeping score by pyrrho · · Score: 1

      what is the matter with dozens of choices... I mean, "third party libs" exactly?

      Am I really worse off to have xerces and libxml available than to just use MS's inferior xml libraries? What, to make it easier to learn.

      Oh, well, not only do I enjoy becoming familiar with competing implementations, but I consider it a professional requirement.

      --

      -pyrrho

    30. Re:If we're keeping score by pyrrho · · Score: 1

      >which are 100% windows based and always will be (unfortunately)

      you are making a short term decision, and trying to use the phrase above to justify it as a long term solution.

      Nothing personal, but I guarantee that people will not be using 100% windows solutions "for ever".

      MS is actually less entrenched than IBM was 15 years ago.

      --

      -pyrrho

    31. Re:If we're keeping score by ergo98 · · Score: 1

      Let me guess: Out of work and FURIOUS that your l33t Java skillz aren't getting your prime billing? I'll put pretty good money on that.

      Its "Java Programming" and ".NET Programming." Refine your search dickhead.

      Yes, only search criteria chosen by you, selected specifically to accommodate your delusions, will suffice. Sorry but I don't play along with that sort of data manipulation. Please tell me why ".NET" and "Java" isn't satisfactory? Because it makes you lose? Probably 99% of books that say "Java" will be about Java programming (though perhaps there may be a few about the Island of Java), as probably 99% of books that have ".NET" in their name are about programming in .NET. Now perhaps they might have titles like "Architecting Applications in .NET", or "Developing for .NET", or "C#.NET for Java Fascists", but they're still .NET.

      It is called being fucked in the ass by a company that covers up technology failure after technology failure with marketing hype blah blah blah blah

      You have got some serious rage issues. Seriously. It isn't so personal, you know. Bill Gates doesn't hate you. Microsoft isn't trying to steal your DNA to super gorillas.

    32. Re:If we're keeping score by matsh · · Score: 1

      Eh, I've used both VS and IntelliJ, and IntelliJ kicks total ass. I have no idea where you get your ideas from, but it clearly isn't reality.

    33. Re:If we're keeping score by IXI · · Score: 1

      Twice as hard to use and ten times as easy to make money when you can refer to M$ on the cover.

      --
      He saw some dirty arabs and fired. Too bad it was just some friendly kurds, BBC reporters and his fellow cowboys.
    34. Re:If we're keeping score by matsh · · Score: 1

      The .NET libraries are huge. It takes more space to describe all of it, but that's just because there is more for you to use in one place without having to write it yourself or drag in dozens of third party libs.

      What are you smoking? The Java libraries are much much larger than the .Net libraries.

    35. Re:If we're keeping score by JohnwheeleR · · Score: 1
      Let me guess: Out of work and FURIOUS that your l33t Java skillz aren't getting your prime billing? I'll put pretty good money on that.

      HAHAHA. No.

      You have got some serious rage issues.

      Nope, just feeding the trolls.

    36. Re:If we're keeping score by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nope, just feeding the trolls.

      Oh, this is how you make a living?

      (for the slow, such as yourself, the implication is that you're the troll...something that is quite evident)

    37. Re:If we're keeping score by JohnwheeleR · · Score: 1

      ok ergo98. is 98 the year you were born or the version of windows you enjoy using for production servers?

    38. Re:If we're keeping score by b17bmbr · · Score: 1

      i may be confused about .NET, i mean, is it a desert topping or a floor polish? but seriously, the only things that microsoft has spec'd are the language and runtime. yes, there are some platform independent libraries, but the meat of .NET is still tied to a specific platform. when VS .NET can write apps for linux then i'll be sold. which still leads me to a question i can't find an answer to: what exactly is .NET?

      i know that with java (forgetting swing for a moment), i can write a networked app that will run on any platform. remember microsoft's java, and how much they added. i have been working on some cocoa/java apps. yes, that is very platform dependent. fine. but, apple didn't tie up there JVM with cocoa dependencies. they just added the cocoa bindings to java, so native apps and java apps work (almost) the same.

      i still see .NET as being another way for microsoft to leverage its desktop position to eventually lock out other platforms. which makes good business sense, but...

      --
      My problem? I was perfectly gruntled, until some numbnuts came by and dissed me.
    39. Re:If we're keeping score by dasmegabyte · · Score: 1

      I don't see why language choice is a long term decision. I've only been in the industry five years and have already switched my primary language twice.

      --
      Hey freaks: now you're ju
    40. Re:If we're keeping score by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Really! Say could you point to where .NET provides a standard set of API for remote server management and deployment? Something that provides the flexibility of J2EE JMX API's and a reference implementation.

    41. Re:If we're keeping score by BollocksToThis · · Score: 1

      Perhaps they just want to keep MS from getting a strangehold on their company?

      That's not mismanagement, it's learning from history.

      --
      This sig is part of your complete breakfast.
    42. Re:If we're keeping score by Junks+Jerzey · · Score: 1

      Hmmmmmmm.... I don't know about you, but between Borland's products and MS's, I would say that Borland beats MS hands down, it's not even funny.

      Borland is in a bad position. Delphi is/was great for a couple of big reasons: (1) the language was much cleaner and less headache causing than C and C++; (2) you could create slick GUIs with little effort, especially when compared with raw Win32 calls and MFC. But now both of these wins are fundamental parts of the C#/.net combination. You could stick with Delphi for .net, but why? The language is going to have to be retrofitted to include all of the new .net features, and in all honesty, Microsoft has has the advantage in that they could design things mostly from scratch, so they ditched lots of legacy language problems when designing C#.

      I'll always have a soft spot for Borland's compilers, but I don't think they're going to transition to .net well at all.

    43. Re:If we're keeping score by pyrrho · · Score: 1

      You can change languages.

      Those platforms, applications, and servers you leave behind you will remain in the same language. If they are good useful hard to write systems, they will likely be there for a long time. That's a long term decision.

      --

      -pyrrho

    44. Re:If we're keeping score by reanjr · · Score: 1

      I use VS.NET for all my development so you should be sold now right? ;-)

      The only part of .NET that I see a problem porting to any other platform is the System.Windows.Forms namespace and a few bits and pieces here and there, which despite what you may have heard on slashdot are NOT integral to write any non-trivial app. They are mostly lower level functionality like interoperating with COM and other things that are simply irrelevent to non Windows development. Oh, there's also the entire Microsoft namespace, but that's designed from the ground up to provide windows specific functionality (like access to the Registry).

      And I just read that the Mono project is porting System.Windows.Forms, minus a few lowlevel form functions that are only used in some window customizing code that is generally not used in anything but window "prettying" software.

      From what I've read on Mono's Windows.Form implementation, I fully expect within the year to be able to write fully functional GUI enabled apps in Visual Studio .NET and simply copy the compiled executable to my Linux box and run it. I understand I will have to be careful with certain functions (I commonly use the Registry to store things, though I'm moving to the Application.Config method .NET uses so that my apps will be platform-independent), but overall with a tiny bit of forethought I will be a full fledged Linux GUI programmer in short time and I don't need to learn a thing.

      I see the .NET strategy more like this:
      - .NET takes over Java
      - .NET takes over institutional use (for various reasons I don't wat to get into)
      - Just about everything (Linux, Solaris, etc) gets an implementation of .NET
      - Since everybody easily writes .NET apps on any platform now, .NET servers have become more valuable
      - Microsoft has the single best .NET implementation (they were working on it for years before anyone even heard of it and they now have an OS that was designed with it in mind)
      - Microsoft makes serious inroads into the server market that they otherwise could not have penetrated
      - Meanwhile, they haven't lost anyone due to the .NET initiative (no one's going to stop using MS because Linux has .NET now), so their overall customer base is significantly larger.
      - In addition, as an added bonus, there are now hordes of new devlopers who use "other" languages like Python, Perl, PHP, etc. that now can write full fledged Windows apps with favorite language, thus increasing the development base of Windows.

      Oh and as to your question as to what .NET is, there are two answers.
      1. (marketing answer) A brand name of new MS products that are XML and web services driven or compatible.
      2. (developer answer) A VM platform, similar but superior to Java (at least once more implementations are released) that allows the use of any compatible language, thus avoiding language lock-in.

    45. Re:If we're keeping score by Jord · · Score: 1
      Yes a good IDE will make a good programmer more efficient. The said part is there are all of these people out there that think dragging and dropping in some supped up IDE is coding and they get hired.

      If a person HAS TO HAVE some super IDE to code then they are not a coder. Period.

      I speak from experience. I have hired (and fired) a large number of programmers over the years and write code myself. Part of the reason it is so hard to find a job in this industry right now (other than the recession) is that there are a huge number of people out there that think they are coders but have no clue.

      If you cannot write a piece of code on the whiteboard without your IDE, then you have no business applying for a coding job.

    46. Re:If we're keeping score by rabidcow · · Score: 1

      The said part is there are all of these people out there that think dragging and dropping in some supped up IDE is coding and they get hired.

      Absolutely, and I'd rather those people went back to their jobs at McDonald's. :6

      If a person HAS TO HAVE some super IDE to code then they are not a coder.

      If it's an absolute necessity, sure. OTOH, sometimes it's like travelling from New York to LA. Walking that far would take so much more time and effort that very few people who actually could would be willing to.

      There are other things that can serve a similar purpose, like print copies of all your interfaces, but instant cross referencing in an IDE is really wonderful.

    47. Re:If we're keeping score by Jord · · Score: 1

      There is no disagreement that an IDE is useful. But the original start of this was a person claiming that a language was crap because the IDE was crap in his opinion. My response to that is simple. If you need the IDE your not a coder, go get a job with your name on your shirt.

  7. Too bad C# is pantented by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Redundant

    So is Java, but really how can you call something standard if it's patented? Just look at the whole rambus mess regarding patents it holds against sdram. Patents undermine standards by allowing one corporation monopoly control over anybody who attempts to implement the so-called standard, thus leading to diminishing number of people wishing to implement the specification, leading to technology fragmentation all the same as if the specification was proprietary.

  8. Umm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just a quick question for "TheAncientHacker" (The guy who posted this story.

    Do you perchance work for Microsoft or one of it's affiliates?

  9. ISO standards - so what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting
    How much development is still done in "regular" C and C++?

    Who actually owns copies of those standards? I know I don't - simply because they charge several hundred bucks a copy.

    As the artical says: The academic community benefits perhaps more from the published specifications to do computer science research than do companies.

    Academic research is fine, but when I'm looking for new programmers I would much rather have real-world experience. How many academic programs you wrote as an undergrad (or even a grad student) had to run for hours or even weeks and maybe with direct user interaction and not crash? Standards don't help you learn how to code that.

    1. Re:ISO standards - so what? by Dthoma · · Score: 1

      How much development is still done in "regular" C and C++?

      Who actually owns copies of those standards? I know I don't - simply because they charge several hundred bucks a copy.

      You should have a pretty good idea of the ISO standards for C/C++ if you're a competent coder. Plus, you should use a compiler which tells you when you violate them. Adding -ansi -pedantic -Wall to your gcc commands can go a long way towards making long-lasting, proper C and C++ code.

      --

      Note to M1-ers: a curt but otherwise insightful message is not "Flamebait" or "Troll".

    2. Re:ISO standards - so what? by s20451 · · Score: 2, Funny

      How many academic programs you wrote as an undergrad (or even a grad student) had to run for hours or even weeks and maybe with direct user interaction and not crash?

      As a grad student, I would say, pretty much daily. Some of the numerical integrations or monte carlo simulations that I have written have run for a week or more.

      --
      Toronto-area transit rider? Rate your ride.
    3. Re:ISO standards - so what? by krlynch · · Score: 1

      Who actually owns copies of those standards? I know I don't - simply because they charge several hundred bucks a copy.

      I actually own copies of both, and each one only cost $18. The cost is huge for the hardcopy versions ... but ANSI (to mention just one) sells pdf versions through their online store. The C++ standard document is ISO-IEC 14882-1998, while the C99 standard document is ANSI-ISO-IEC 9899-1999. The other thing to search on is "programming language c++" and "programming language c"

    4. Re:ISO standards - so what? by macrom · · Score: 1

      I know I don't - simply because they charge several hundred bucks a copy.

      Not true. You can get the C++ spec here for USD$18. No C++ programmer should be without this.

    5. Re:ISO standards - so what? by isorox · · Score: 1

      run for .. weeks .. and not crash? Standards don't help you learn how to code that.

      Neither does windows ;)

      I'm about to graduate, and there are hardly any computer jobs out there for people with less then 2 years commercial experience. The only way to get experience is get a job, and the only way to do taht is have experience. It's a chicken and egg situation, however as people leave the industry, and noone joins, you'll get a problem.

    6. Re:ISO standards - so what? by 4of12 · · Score: 1

      How much development is still done in "regular" C and C++?

      Making some comparison to the C# issue here, I'd say that no development is done in "regular" C and C++.

      By "regular" I mean C without the standard C library (eg, printf()) or other libraries, or C++ without the standard C++ library or the STL.

      Likewise, C# can be a fine standard but practically useless if you don't have standard libraries.

      Just as with Java, C and C++, C# too will be useless unless you also have standard libraries implemented anywhere you want to run it. If you can only run your program on a platform provided by a single vendor, then you've made yourself vulnerable to the whims of that vendor.

      --
      "Provided by the management for your protection."
    7. Re:ISO standards - so what? by orthogonal · · Score: 1

      How much development is still done in "regular" C and C++?

      Who actually owns copies of those standards? I know I don't - simply because they charge several hundred bucks a copy.


      I own both, and I use both.

      Each is $18 in pdf format from ANSI, as others have noted.

      Standards don't help you learn how to code ["real world" programs].

      Standards document what you can expect, and what you cannot expect, from the language.

      Want your "real world" program to run after yopu've upgraded or changed your compiler? Want to be able to port your "real world" program to another architechture? Want it to run for years and years? Then it needs to be written to the Standard. And so your programmers have to know (enough of) the Standard to write to that Standard.

    8. Re:ISO standards - so what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'd say that is a false statement, completely false. You can write code for embedded environments and NEVER touch any standard libraries -- and I have. In my intro to microprocessors class, we wrote in both assembler and in C w/o any libraries. Secondly, I know for a fact my that my uncle has also written in C w/o any standard libraries in embedded environments.

      There isn't any room for a standard library if you have like 32KB for code.

    9. Re:ISO standards - so what? by Sax+Maniac · · Score: 1
      You don't have to own the standard to adhere to it. All you need is a good C or C++ book that doesn't make the aformentioned mistakes. The several-hundred dollar standard isn't meant for you, it's meant for people like me who write compilers, linkers, and debuggers.

      Further, it's not expected that anyone writes apps in "plain C or C++" by which I assume you mean not using any vendor extensions. But if you know what parts are extensions and what parts are standardized and keeping them clearly separated in different modules, you will have a much easier time porting your app to different OSs or platforms.

      --
      I can explanate how to administrate your network. You must configurate and segmentate it, so it can computate.
    10. Re:ISO standards - so what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I wrote a killer program in undergrad..and it ran forever without crashing!

      #include "stdio.h"
      void main()
      {
      while(true) printf("Screw you professor!");
      }

    11. Re:ISO standards - so what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      18$, actually, for a PDF download. You don't want the paper version anyway.

    12. Re:ISO standards - so what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      start your own dotcom. Develop a product. After 2 years, declare bankruptcy and go looking for a job. Unless your making money. In which case, put out an ad and hire people with no experience to help grow your business.

    13. Re:ISO standards - so what? by isorox · · Score: 1

      I think I'm a little too late to get the venture capital to let me do things like eat

  10. Belfunge by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Belfunge, now with command arguments!
    Nobody cares?

  11. Platforms C# works on by AlgUSF · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Platforms for C#: 0 Windows .NET is still .NOT
    Platforms for Java: Windows, Solaris, Linux, AIX, Irix, Tru64, ........


    At my university:
    Classes tought with C#: 0
    Classes tought with Java: 6

    --


    I want my rights back. I was actually using them when our government stole them after 9/11.
    1. Re:Platforms C# works on by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      Unfortunatly both MIT and Cornell are Microsoft shop Universities now. They explicitly use c#. Microsoft is paying many universities today to use their products so when students graduate they will pick Microsoft based solutions.

      Today we have so called brilliant Computer science graduates who know b-tree algorithms and recursive mathmatics but do not how to login to a unix terminal.

    2. Re:Platforms C# works on by stratjakt · · Score: 5, Informative

      Spoken like a MS hater who isn't familiar with the products.

      The .NET framework has been available for Win 2k and XP for some time, and VS.net has been advertised right here on slashdot forever. .NET server was renamed Windows 2003 because it was confusing people like you.

      A language is not an operating system. Saying .NET only works on Win 2003 is like saying Java only works on Solaris.

      --
      I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
    3. Re:Platforms C# works on by SteveX · · Score: 1

      Huh?

      I've used C# on Linux and on a number of Windows platforms (including handhelds). While it's not on as many as Java, it's still > 0.

      - Steve

    4. Re:Platforms C# works on by Glock27 · · Score: 2, Insightful
      I've used C# on Linux and on a number of Windows platforms (including handhelds). While it's not on as many as Java, it's still > 0.

      I'm sure you're referring to production quality compilers and runtimes...aren't you? ;-)

      --
      Galileo: "The Earth revolves around the Sun!"
      Score: -1 100% Flamebait
    5. Re:Platforms C# works on by Hal-9001 · · Score: 1
      Unfortunatly both MIT and Cornell are Microsoft shop Universities now. They explicitly use c#.
      Whatever happened to force-feeding Scheme to MIT undergraduates? What is the world coming to?
      --
      "It take 9 months to bear a child, no matter how many women you assign to the job."
    6. Re:Platforms C# works on by aggieben · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Hmm.... Actually, there are several platforms that .NET can exist happily on: Linux, FreeBSD (leading to ports for other BSD's), Win32. The only _major_ platform that isn't in that list is Sun, and there will be a .NET on Sun platforms, just like there is a Java platform on Win32. Also, if you want to get into a "my university does..." battle, try this: Bjarne Stroustrup is a professor at my university and uses C# in the graduate class.

      --
      Don't become a regular here, you will become retarded. -- Yoda the Retard
    7. Re:Platforms C# works on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Mono is almost up to being production quality :-)

      They have EnterpriseServices, ADO.NET, ASP.NET, Remoting RPC servers.

      And it runs quite nicely.

    8. Re:Platforms C# works on by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1
      Platforms for C#: 0 Windows .NET is still .NOT

      Actually the .NET framework has been around for a while. The installation crashes every time I try to install it on my 2K box (even with re-installing Windows, but I think that's just me).

      Platforms for Java: Windows, Solaris, Linux, AIX, Irix, Tru64, ........

      Really? I'll take your word for it, I suppose, but the only platforms the Sun JRE supports are Windows, Linux, Solaris and almost FreeBSD.

      How about this one:
      Platforms for C/C++: Well, anything supported by gcc would be too many to list, and there are other C compilers out there.

      How many classes are taught at your university with C/ or C++? At mine it's a lot more than are taught with Java...

      When selecting a programming language, pick the best tool for the job. If your coding for Windows, C# may be the best choice for you. If you want binary-ish compatibility across platforms, go for Java. If you want fast portable code, pick ISO C.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    9. Re:Platforms C# works on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've been waiting for someone to post about Bjorn.

      AnonAggie

    10. Re:Platforms C# works on by Glock27 · · Score: 1
      And it runs quite nicely.

      Benchmarks?

      Is there something similar to the test suites being run on gcj?

      --
      Galileo: "The Earth revolves around the Sun!"
      Score: -1 100% Flamebait
    11. Re:Platforms C# works on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Platforms for Java: Windows, Solaris, Linux, AIX, Irix, Tru64, ........


      Everytimes when ppl show off the cross platform ability of Java, I would like to ask them to take a look how much platform was supported by Perl already.

      Moveover, Windows .NET is not "still .NOT", but never. It should be Windows 2003. And you can already run C# on Windows 2000/XP/Me/etc... (and how about mono?)
    12. Re:Platforms C# works on by JustAnotherReader · · Score: 1
      Oh I get it, .NET works on Windows 2000, or Windows XP or even Windows NT and possibly even Windows 98.

      And here I was thinking that "cross platform" meant it had to run on something non-Windows based like, I don't know, how about : Linux, Mac OsX, IBM AIX, Sun Solaris.

      Silly me, my bad.

    13. Re:Platforms C# works on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      A friend of mine asked me the other day if I had ever tried C# because he believes I eventually try just about any language if I can justify a reason for it (i.e. think of some tool to make with it). However, I have not even looked at the syntax of the language. Do you consider C# a "better Java"? Also, is it in any way compatable with C++ so that I can use C++ classes without too much pain? I am writing a distributed processing system now with plenty of tools and plugins to go along with it (meaning I am now fretting over the framework and API / RMI to use still but with a couple of shitty little prototype parts). I thought seriously of doing it all in C and C++ for the core because of heavy number crunching primarily floating point and any matrix cheats I can spare. Front end is irrelevant now but obviously Java seems to have a plethora of free and available tools and out of the box support for everything from loadbalancing to object caching and persistence. I have heard too many horror stories of JNI so will humbly avoid that if I can.

      Would C# be useful for my needs or does it suffer from being so young and feature poor like Java was in the beginning? Oh yeah, I am a stupidhead... I forgot to mention that it will be P2P from a hierarchy standpoint while allowing a hierarchy/tiered system as well if needed. And of course I want it as platform independant as possible (another big factor in Java's favor obviously). Many say now, Java doesn't slow you down over C/C++ like that anymore yet all the major publications still suggest using intense number crunching on non-Java languages. If I had a couple of years of spare time I suppose I could implement it in multiple methods to test it but I am too lazy and impatient for that.

    14. Re:Platforms C# works on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Microsoft is paying many universities today to use their products so when students graduate they will pick Microsoft based solutions.

      Of course. This is America, where everything is for sale to the highest bidder -- including student's souls.

      It helps explain why Sun is getting rid of as many Americans in their organization as possible and replacing them with Indian citizens. Sun knows the only real arena for competition in America is the almighty dollar, and going against Microsoft in that arena means Sun loses. Sun is preparing to withdraw from North America entirely, hoping to fight on from Asia, where other rules might apply.

      Is this good? bad? Neither. It just is. From the perspective of a former Unix/C programmer who's been forced to code in VB for about 5 years now, I only know that my will is broken and I am a zombie in Gate's legions. Microsoft has won... submit or join the unemployed on the dustheap.

      God I need a drink.

    15. Re:Platforms C# works on by Arthur+Dent · · Score: 5, Funny
      At my university:
      Classes tought with C#: 0
      Classes tought with Java: 6

      Class taught in Spelling: Priceless.
      For all else, there's m-w

    16. Re:Platforms C# works on by 2short · · Score: 1

      "Today we have so called brilliant Computer science graduates who know b-tree algorithms and recursive mathmatics but do not how to login to a unix terminal."

      As opposed to graduates who think "how to login to a unix terminal." is Computer Science?

    17. Re:Platforms C# works on by tshak · · Score: 1

      They explicitly use c#. Microsoft is paying many universities today to use their products so when students graduate they will pick Microsoft based solutions.


      And how do you think Java got into the universities in the first place? Business has (unfortunately) always had an influence in acedamia. Until this is illegal, it's a very legit and ethical business tactic IMHO.

      --

      There is no longer anything that can be done with computers that is nontrivial and clearly legal. -- Paul Phillips
    18. Re:Platforms C# works on by tshak · · Score: 1

      And BSD (full implementation) and Linux (nearly complete).

      --

      There is no longer anything that can be done with computers that is nontrivial and clearly legal. -- Paul Phillips
    19. Re:Platforms C# works on by silvaran · · Score: 1

      At my university:
      Classes tought with C#: 0
      Classes tought with Java: 6


      Classes taught for spelling: priceless
      Some things standards can buy. For everything else, there's bad grammar.

    20. Re:Platforms C# works on by edhall · · Score: 1

      How do you (or he) explain this? When did Bjarne change his mind (and forget to update his website)?

      -Ed
    21. Re:Platforms C# works on by g_bit · · Score: 2, Informative
      Actually C# can compile and run on Windows, Linux and BSD, so I don't know where you get 0 from. (see Mono and dotGNU)

      Furthermore, Java has been around for a while longer than C# so more support would be natural. That will change soon though as C# is widely regarded as a much better language.

    22. Re:Platforms C# works on by nicodaemos · · Score: 2

      You're implying that Sun paid universities to adopt Java? Care to back that up with some references?

    23. Re:Platforms C# works on by g_bit · · Score: 1
      From the perspective of a former Unix/C programmer who's been forced to code in VB for about 5 years now, I only know that my will is broken and I am a zombie in Gate's legions.

      Oh, you put on a good show my man! Let us all take a moment to pity this poor soul who has been held against his will and made to program in an environment that he doesn't like. Boo-hoo. (I thought you said this was America??)

      BTW, the only way that VB sucks is when your company won't buy 3rd party ActiveX controls for you and you have to program them yourself. (If you're smart, you'll do it in C++/ATL anyway) Otherwise, there's not much left to do but tie the pieces together, that's the beauty of VB you dolt! Who cares if it has slightly malformed syntax, everything is freakin drag-n-drop!

    24. Re:Platforms C# works on by CounterZer0 · · Score: 1

      What are you, dense?
      C# runs on FreeBSD and Windows 2k/XP.

    25. Re:Platforms C# works on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Try Windows (.NET, Rotor, Mono, Portable.NET), FreeBSD (Rotor, Mono, Portable.NET), Linux (Mono, Portable.NET), Mac OS X (Rotor, Portable.NET), and Solaris (Portable.NET).

    26. Re:Platforms C# works on by poot_rootbeer · · Score: 1

      .NET server was renamed Windows 2003 because it was confusing people like you.

      You say that as if it's his fault there was confusion. For a while there Microsoft was slapping the ".NET" moniker on half of their development projects, whether it was a smart decision or not(they had done the same with the "Active-" prefix a couple years earlier).

      And the new name doesn't make it any better. Now Windows 98, 2000, and 2003 are all from different product lines -- a home desktop OS, a professional-tier desktop OS, and an enterprise server OS. How does that make any sense?

    27. Re:Platforms C# works on by Nept · · Score: 1

      Platforms for C#: 0 Windows .NET is still .NOT


      Please explain ... .NET works fine. There are a very large number or projects / shops that are deploying .NET solutions right now. I'm not arguing a J2EE vs. .NET solution here, but between VB6 and .NET, the latter is clearly superior, and for developers has been available for quite some time now.
      Also, while I don't contest that it is better for universities to teach non-MS products, I'll bet your school (like mine and many others did) will be teaching Java for several years after it's gone out of favour in the industry. Schools are just slow when it comes to adopting new technologies into their curriculum.

      --
      "Teachers leave us kids alone ..." - Roger Waters, Pink Floyd
    28. Re:Platforms C# works on by PureCreditor · · Score: 1
      I am an ugrad CS at Cornell, and I can tell you that only ONE of our CS course is taught is C# (CS 215). Reason : Because we also have Intro to C (113) and Intro to C++ (213) courses. CS215 is OPTIONAL for all CS majors. However, the REQUIRED core :

      100-211-212

      are all taught in Java. Our Database course is taught in C++, Networking course in Java, Compiler course in Java, OS course in C.

      FYI : Ugrad and Grad combined, we have over 100 CS courses. Only one of those are taught in C#.

    29. Re:Platforms C# works on by miguel · · Score: 3, Informative

      Microsoft's shared source implementation works on FreeBSD and MacOS X. It has been ported by third parties to Linux.

      On the positive side, there is this kick-ass project called Mono that implements it, and runs on a variety of other systems as well.

    30. Re:Platforms C# works on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You say that as if it's his fault there was confusion

      It is his fault, if he wants to fancy himself an IT know-it-all (which he does) then he should know what it all does and what product is what.

      Microsoft calling everything XP or .NET is no more confusing than KDE making everything start with the letter K.

    31. Re:Platforms C# works on by reanjr · · Score: 1

      You know, using .NET would actually be a great thing for universities to do to teach concepts since the framework is language-agnostic (or mostly so). With implementations for C++, C#, VB, Java, Eiffel, PHP, Python and others all running through VS.NET, the students could have a wide range of choices about which language to use for any given class.

      There are, of course, plenty of logistic problems not to mention the licensing costs involved...

    32. Re:Platforms C# works on by reanjr · · Score: 1

      C# as a language is no better (or trivially better) than Java as a language. They're just different. Though either is easy to pick up if you know one.

      On the other hand, most benchmarking I've seen (and my own personal experience) indicates that the .NET framework runs pretty spryly on number crunching. I just wrote a quick test in both languages (set a value equal to pi then multiplied it by pi, then divided it by pi 1,000,000 times) and no discernible (I did not benchmark it) difference was apparent. There would only be a reasonable difference if you were doing all sorts of wacky bit moving tricks.

      If you were to take those C++ classes and put them in a managed C++ Project (VS.NET) you could compile them to work with .NET. Otherwise, the changes necessary to make usually aren't too difficult.

      C# is more feature rich than the latest Java.

      I'm not familiar enough with Java to know how easy it would be to do P2P, but it's ridiculously trivial in C#. As long as you're not doing a GUI, it should run fine on Windows 98+, Linux, and BSD (I believe, I've never used it) without recompilation or code changes.

    33. Re:Platforms C# works on by unborracho · · Score: 1

      Not so much sun directly as much as the businesses in the surrounding area in the college donate money to the computer science program and thus are given some influence on what languages are taught.

      Myself, I am a CS student at UWEC and the businesses in the surrounding Chippewa Valley area do donate big bucks to our computer science program, because they always come to our campus to recruit, and they want Java programmers. So indirectly... take this for what you will.. Sun does have some influence on what is taught at Universities.

      --
      "You had this look that of an angel, it was such a bad disguise" --Dishwalla
    34. Re:Platforms C# works on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Heh. "Forced" as in "after working for a year in VB, no C shop would hire me anymore". I thought I could go back, but I was wrong. I can of course quit the programming field entirely; there's no gun held to my head.

      And yes, everything in VB is drag-n-drop... which is why it sucks. There's no challenge. It's boring as hell.

      Wasn't looking for pity... just commenting on why Microsoft is winning. More programmers get sucked into the yaw of Microsoft by the bosses, and then the shops that don't use Microsoft products won't touch those programmers with a ten-foot pole because they think most Windows programmers are incompetent; besides there's always someone else whose been using perl for years and they can hire that guy. Thus programmers fall into the black hole of Gates and never get out again. (Oh excuse me, I fell into the use of rhetorical flair again; beg pardon.)

    35. Re:Platforms C# works on by nicodaemos · · Score: 1

      I've been working in the software industry for ... well, let's just say a while ... and after having worked with many languages it was readily apparent that Java would gain momentum. It has a lot of benefits for businesses and individuals.

      As far as computer science programs, the fact that Java has classes, gui, networking and documentation built-in makes it a natural candidate for teaching students.

      Yes, companies spread their money around to influence students and Sun probably did some spreading. But Java has a lot of advantages that make it attractive to both business and academia even without anyone doing any marketing.

    36. Re:Platforms C# works on by ryanvm · · Score: 1

      At my university:
      Classes tought with C#: 0
      Classes tought with Java: 6


      Classes tought with spell-checker: 0

    37. Re:Platforms C# works on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh shit, .NET is available on a couple Windows platforms. Well, shucky-damn, it's an open standard. Fuck you, Microsoft flunkie.

    38. Re:Platforms C# works on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      if you could, please qualify C# is more feature rich than the latest Java.

      I've been using C# and from what I can tell, for hardcore server stuff it's rather lacking and seriously behind J2EE. Others have mentioned threading, but my beef is with the standard Schema support in .NET. I found a bug in .NET 1.0 schema driver where a complexType that contains choice with n complexTypes and one is recursive won't generate C# source. The schema is valid and was verified using one of the many schema validators.

    39. Re:Platforms C# works on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Microsoft calling everything XP or .NET is no more confusing than KDE making everything start with the letter K.

      That's retarded, and not even close to accurate.

      KDE developers may name everything with a K, but they at least try to give you a hint about the product and what it does (occasionally by making references to existing software). Microsoft's name choices don't do that (as pointed out by the guy who mentioned Win98, 2000, and 2003 are all completely different products with different intended tasks)

    40. Re:Platforms C# works on by sheldon · · Score: 1

      Thank you Miguel!

      I'm very encouraged to see the Mono project succeed.

      I used Linux for years, but I've found I much prefer the fullness and depth of services that are offered by Windows, so it has been my platform of choice for several years now. That being said, there have been a few instances where it would be nice to write a small piece of software which was cross-platform.

      It's nice to see you understand the realities of the computing world and are willing to take customers into account when building solutions.

    41. Re:Platforms C# works on by aggieben · · Score: 1

      err.. "...the graduate class he teaches."

      --
      Don't become a regular here, you will become retarded. -- Yoda the Retard
    42. Re:Platforms C# works on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Microsoft's name choices don't do that

      Yeah, Visual Studio .NET and Windows Server .NET

      MOMMY IM CONFUSED!

    43. Re:Platforms C# works on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oooh, that smarts!

    44. Re:Platforms C# works on by Urkin · · Score: 1

      You are a retard who does not know how to read... "Platforms for C#: 0 Windows .NET is still .NOT" Separate that and you will understand, its 2 Statements not one continuous one. He meant to say, "Platforms for C#: 0 Windows, .NET is still .NOT"

    45. Re:Platforms C# works on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bullshit, every language (at least those that come with VS as standard, i.e. those written by MS) have been molested heavily to make them work with the object model. C# is the native language of .NET, VB has been changed completely, and is really just a C# "skin", with renamed keywords. C++.NET is so far from C++, that any C++ programmer would be more familiar with C#.

      And you are going to have serious trouble trying to implement any language that is not based on the object oriented paradigm, due to the fact that everything is object-based.

    46. Re:Platforms C# works on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, BSD (Still vaporware, 90% missing including System.Windows.Forms) and Linux (with a lot of help from wine, i.e. still win32).

      Where is the cross-platform .NET?

    47. Re:Platforms C# works on by Ctrl-Alt-Del · · Score: 1

      Guess he should have gone to Writing English 101 before he went off on an illiterate uninformed rant.

      *ping* Oh of course, this is Slashdot....

      --
      "Life is like a sewer - what you get out of it depends on what you put into it" - Tom Lehrer
    48. Re:Platforms C# works on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So?

      UNIX is not that big.

      Mainframes, Minicomputers, and PCs are.
      Most big companies around here use a combination of mainframes and PCs -- they don't use Unix.

    49. Re:Platforms C# works on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey shit for brains. Where did you learn how to write?

      Here are the platforms it runs on:

      Microsoft .NET: Windows

      Microsoft Shared Source CLI (Rotor): Windows, FreeBSD, Mac OS X, and Linux.

      Mono: Windows, Linux, FreeBSD

      Dot GNU Portable.NET: Windows, Linux

    50. Re:Platforms C# works on by reanjr · · Score: 1

      Let me clarify one thing real quick, which I suppose you understood, but others may not: When I said C# I meant C# and the .NET framework.

      Maybe I am incorrect. It could simply be that I am more familiar with .NET and C# than I am with Java, just as you are more familiar with Java than C# and .NET.

      I was simply speaking from my experiences. In actuality I usually use VB, but mix in some C# modules here and there when something is easier to do in C# than it is in VB.

    51. Re:Platforms C# works on by ckline · · Score: 1

      Well, as a graduate of both Cornell and MIT, I have to say that one of the few things I learned was that Computer Science has nothing to do with Java, C#, Microsoft, or Unix terminals. It's about formal thinking and mathematics.

      Of course Microsoft is trying to get their products to be used in universities; that's smart business. And it's not surprising that universities accept these donations. They want their students to be exposed to modern hardware and software that they'll encounter when they apply their C.S. skills after graduation, and they want to save money.

      That doesn't mean that MIT and Cornell are "Microsoft shops", and it does not imply that their graduates are somehow hamstrung by the particular OS upon which they wrote up their homework assignments. Any C.S. student worth his salt will pick the best algorithm, language, OS, and hardware for the job.

    52. Re:Platforms C# works on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So your argument is that real businesses are asking universities for programmers trained in the languages they actually use in the real world?

    53. Re:Platforms C# works on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      a compiler course in java?

      I take it you don't actually develop a compiler, you implement segments such as a symbol tree or a text parser (either of which would be too slow and memory intensive to run on a real program.) Of course, you don't implement macros or a preprocessor, because the java religion has declared them evil.

      I have nothing against java, but that's a stupid use of it. It's like using basic to learn pointers with gotos.

    54. Re:Platforms C# works on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But there are other JREs besides Sun's. IBM, BEA, and Apple all have fully operative Java environments. Mono, et al, are still "works in progress." Mono is beyond the hello world stage, but just barely. There is a lot that is going on, but the pieces aren't together yet. gcj is alot closer than mono to being a reality, but I'm sure mono will outstrip it soon.

    55. Re:Platforms C# works on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      call us back after they are 'deployed'. There were a very large number or projects that were 'deploying' the full J2EE stack who crashed and burned too. Mostly, those that actually survived learned to use only the useful parts.

  12. Standards?? by stevenp · · Score: 2, Funny

    The good thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from.

    To be read: "I don't care if C# is standard if it is a crappy language"

  13. April fools! by stratjakt · · Score: 1

    We all know that microsoft is inherently bad and sun is inherently good.

    This is the stupidest April 1st post yet! And a day late!

    I like C# more than I like Java though. Hopefully actual-factual standards will push it's adoption forward.

    --
    I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
    1. Re:April fools! by axxackall · · Score: 1
      and sun is inherently good.

      And what's so good of them?

      Speak for yourself. Sun is no less bad as Microsoft. Otherwise, why Sun is so bad for JBoss? Why Sun is so bad for many other small (but very good!) open source projects who is trying to contribute the good code to Java? Remember what's happened between Sun and Apache's Log4j?

      Now Sun almost officialy admits that Java is bad: it's too big, too slow and too inconvinient for OS system management. Now Sun reconsiders the use of Java on teir future server-side applications. Sun is even paying attention on Python for its future. So, why to bother with standartization of that *dead* Java?

      I think that first thing Sun will do good with Java is to stop all histery of Java and to move to Python. All Sun was doing before was a business using very bad methods.

      --

      Less is more !
  14. 2 Standards and still a mound of manure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yea, and there are way more MS Certified anythings than Sun. Does that mean they know their buts from a hole in the ground?

    Go take your VB or C# and write a virus or something. .Net scales like a rock, and isn't even supported by Microsoft in its own products.

    But Java is Open(ish), and there is plenty of documentation on what is was, what it is, and what it will be. Depending on the weather C# and .Net tend to be a moving target costing developers (Yea those of us that don't have money because all are jobs are going to India with the blessing of M$ AND Sun.) a ton of cash. Java Free!

    Get a clue, get a job, and read a book to learn what programming really is. (Long live C, ASM, and Java). ;)

    -US Coder Supporter.

    1. Re:2 Standards and still a mound of manure by reanjr · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Actually, given the way the .NET framework works, I would think it would be rather difficult to write low level virus.

      I've had extraordinarily good success with .NET scaling to whatever level I've needed it to (excluding a horrible MySQL implementation I got from some third party).

      The phrase "isn't even supported by Microsoft in its own products" perplexes me since it is not something that needs to be supported. Maybe you should clarify exactly what you mean by this.

      The C# and VB compilers are free (as in beer). So I don't see the developer expense.

      Oh well, I guess if you have some preconception of what programming "really is" (and it somehow includes Java for some reason) then that's your prerogitive.

  15. This is somewhat of a smoke screen.. by elemur · · Score: 5, Insightful

    My understanding is that MS is bringing some components to the standards orgs so they can say that, but that their environment will still heavily leverage internal and private APIs.

    So, you have to differentiate between a baseline CLR environment, and the actual programming APIs that would be used to build on top of this. .NET is not the CLR.. .NET is the CLR, APIs, Libraries, and so forth.. therefore only a small part of the environment is open.

    Who wants to bet that this is more for marketing than it is for getting cross platform capabilities? Without MS opening all libraries and APIs *AND* approving any patent use they have on those components to other systems, a public standard on CLR means nothing.

    Sun should bring Java to a standards org, but at the same time, its well documented, understood, and there are no hidden parts to the JVM/Runtime. You aren't going to see that with .NET.

    1. Re:This is somewhat of a smoke screen.. by seosamh · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'm not an apologist for MS, but they will do what they think they have to do to win in the market they believe they're in.

      The Office 11 beta is supposed to show a much stronger commitment to "openness" in the use of XML file formats than anything to come from MS before now. Working with standards bodies such as ECMA and ISO shows some level of commitment on the part of MS to cooperate with the other vendors and the customers in the market today. The recent drop off in "Linux is cancer" remarks show that MS has learned that policy won't fly.

      These are interesting times. Don't count MS out just becasue you don't like some of their past products or practices.

      I run Linux and OS/2 at home, but I like being able to afford feeding my kids and my cats, so I'm not going to ignore what one of the market's largest vendors does.

    2. Re:This is somewhat of a smoke screen.. by elemur · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Just because they have a stronger commitment to XML doesn't make it any more open, when considered as an enterprise platform.

      Take a look at InfoNotes and some of the Office 2003 components. They *fully require* much of your enterprise to be deployed on Microsoft software. They actively spurned W3 standards such as XForms for their own form standard in this line as well.

      This sort of thing isn't new.. and the push to drag the enterprise architecture along by the client applications is dangerous. The DRM technologies being built in for document protection at a concept level are good.. but again, no openness and public standards there.

      My feel is there is a variety of token gestures to give people warm fuzzies, even as the noose tightens and the enterprise and client architecture looses the possiblity to be *anything but* their platform.

      Who cares about an XML file format if you can't decrypt it without Microsoft? What good is a CLR if you can't do anything without patented libraries whose distribution rights are limited to the Windows platform?

    3. Re:This is somewhat of a smoke screen.. by seosamh · · Score: 1, Insightful

      The DRM technologies that scare me are the ones that Intel wants to build in, not so much what MS wants. Without the hardware level support, things like "Palladium" will go nowhere.

      I have not seen any implementation of XForms from any vendor, so I don't know how much of a condemnation it is that MS does not support it now.

      There is no problem "decoding" the XML file formats used in the new Word, Excel, etc.

      I did not say that MS is open. I said that MS is moving toward openness, possibly as a result of market experience in the changed (i.e., not 1985) market. I still believe that.

      Whether the changes will be beneficial for the market as a whole or not remains to be seen. But MS is not stagnant, and they remain a powerful force in the market where I regularly seek gainful employ. Any MSCE who isn't learning the rudiments of Linux is playing with fire, and anyone who chooses to ignore MS's actions is doing the same.

      IMHO, of course.

    4. Re:This is somewhat of a smoke screen.. by elemur · · Score: 1

      I agree on the front that MS is not stagnant.. but I still don't believe that they have any vested interest in moving towards open standards in a meaningful way.

      For example. how are you going to read that XML document when you need to use the (patented) MS DRM infrastructure to decode it?

      My concern is that they have an appearance of moving towards openness, but have a track record of veering off at the last minute, and hitting the tree of proprietary solutions, and bursting into patented flames.

      Finally.. I do agree.. they are not to be ignored. But, I also don't think they are to be trusted to follow through on the users and industries best interests.

    5. Re:This is somewhat of a smoke screen.. by Caoch93 · · Score: 4, Informative
      So, you have to differentiate between a baseline CLR environment, and the actual programming APIs that would be used to build on top of this. .NET is not the CLR.. .NET is the CLR, APIs, Libraries, and so forth.. therefore only a small part of the environment is open.

      Agreed. MS is hiding several parts of .NET, providing an open standard only for a handful of low level components. I have ECMA standard 335 (or is it 355), the standard for CLI and CLR, and it really doesn't cover much at all.

      It certainly doesn't cover WinForms, so good luck seeing portability for GUI applications written in VS.NET!

      Open standards are nice, but played the right way, are bullocks. In this case, Microsoft has decided to include all sorts of references and links to non-standard APIs and libraries, and they are under no obligation to release them. I have reason to suspect, too, that a third party who replicates the behavior of something like WinForms in their own .NET implementation (without MS permission) would find themselves on the business end of charges of reverse-engineering.

      Of course, this can make for a delicious "Tower of Babel" situation as other parties (Mono, etc) start creating their own APIs to fill in the gap between the ECMA standard and what's needed to get things done. The only difference is that the Mono libraries for their APIs will probably be available for a Windows port (if they're not 100% MSIL code already), whereas MS' APIs won't be.

    6. Re:This is somewhat of a smoke screen.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      how many times have we seen MS adopt a standard, only to bastardize it? think kerberos...

      even the "standards" they sometimes contribute, or help promote, are never open standards. think imap via exchange...

      microsoft ONLY adopts standards in small ways to gain acceptance, or give the impression that they are willing to play nice with others, but in the end, they always do something to hinder competition.

      my guess is that they have some hidden APIs that aren't documented that they will use to make their products integrate better with each other. i also presume that microsoft is presenting this "standard" in the hopes of winning converts from java.

      if that were to happen at a successful rate, then they would quickly turn around and play dirty to gain market dominance. it's all very simple really, especially when you look at their history. honestly, who doesn't see through this?

    7. Re:This is somewhat of a smoke screen.. by siphoncolder · · Score: 1

      There's a mistake in that arguement, though: you're confusing .NET with C#. C# was used to build .NET in the first place, but it is not .NET in itself. C# came first, and as a language, C# is what is being awarded standards certification, NOT .NET .

      --
      i'm amazed that i survived - an airbag saved my life.
    8. Re:This is somewhat of a smoke screen.. by Patoski · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The Office 11 beta is supposed to show a much stronger commitment to "openness" in the use of XML file formats than anything to come from MS before now.

      From what I understand the default file format is still in binary form. I also seem to recall seeing that the XML export strips out all the formatting which makes the whole thing pretty useless. Finally, as others have rightly pointed out just having the XML to a file doesn't help a lot unless one also has the DTD. One can obfuscate text just as easily as one can a text file.

      [fasdfdas]]Dear Sirs,[/fasdfdas]

      The above tagging isn't very open and doesn't help *much* when trying to figure out how a file format works. :) Again, all this is second hand knowledge which I haven't seen for myself. YMMV

      --
      G. Washington on Government "it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."
    9. Re:This is somewhat of a smoke screen.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bla bla bla Java.

      Bla bla bla CRL.

      Bla bla bla Standards.

      Is anyone else getting pissed of to the point of just not caring anymore?

    10. Re:This is somewhat of a smoke screen.. by Patoski · · Score: 1

      I could've made my points more clearly but I was in a rush to catch a bus to get home when I wrote it. Let me see if I can be a bit more clear...

      The point is though that there is *nothing* you can do to a text file that can obscificate it - short of encrypting/weirdly encoding it - as throughly or easily as a binary file format.

      Well sure you can. Could you tell me exactly what those nonesense looking tags I used stand for? No, because the naming convention isn't helpful and you don't have the DTD.

      The point of XML is that is a tool to seperate content and presentation. That's the whole point. If MS joined XML so that it contained formatting + content there'd be righteous hell to pay for it.

      Too true... What I meant to say was that a lot of the tags which would be responsible for defining the document are removed and only the core text of the document with *very few* XML tags remain. Much less than what would be needed to produce a similar looking document as the original even if one had the DTD. I found a nice link on the subject from ZDNET of all places. =P

      http://www.zdnet.com.au/reviews/software/busines s/ story/0,2000023555,20270721,00.htm

      That also brings up the topic of DTDs. If MS was truly attempting to be open then they would disclose these DTDs or even possibly use an industry standard DTD like DocBook or something. Of course MS will never do this while there is still value in keeping their .DOC format a big secret.

      The point of XML is that is a tool to seperate content and presentation. That's the whole point. If MS joined XML so that it contained formatting + content there'd be righteous hell to pay for it.

      Mainly they get their sales from all of their apps interacting with one another and making it difficult to switch to different apps. Also, there's value in keeping other Office Suites from interacting with MS Office perfectly (ie swapping word processor documents). While there is some limited value in interoperating with other office suites or other applications MS has a history of shying away from this while trying to lock in customers. I've heard talk like this coming out of Redmond before ("we love and support open standards and follow them to the letter!") so you'll excuse me if I'm a trifle skeptical by all this talk of openness. :)

      --
      G. Washington on Government "it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."
    11. Re:This is somewhat of a smoke screen.. by AtATaddict · · Score: 2, Informative

      They're targetting education. From what I've seen, Math and CS departments are really keen on languages being standardized before they'll add it to the curriculum.

      At least at my school, we were late in getting on the Java bandwagon, and still have only grudgingly accepted it as a "slightly cleaner C++", which I strongly object to(since Javva is most definitely not C++).

      If C# has the standards going for it, plus the blessing of Microsoft, and looks more like C++ than Java, it'll supplant Java quickly in academic settings, which buys Microsoft greater control over the cycle*.

      * Schools teach what's in demand, and businesses look to colleges to see what knowledgeable people are using.

    12. Re:This is somewhat of a smoke screen.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Finally, as others have rightly pointed out just having the XML to a file doesn't help a lot unless one also has the DTD. One can obfuscate text just as easily as one can a text file.

      [fasdfdas]]Dear Sirs,[/fasdfdas]

      A DTD still won't help you understand what the above tag does. You can validate your document now though, yay!

    13. Re:This is somewhat of a smoke screen.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Actually, at least some "hidden APIs" are not even hidden. System.Windows.Forms.Form.Handle and System.Windows.Forms.Message.Hwnd are direct hooks to the underlying win32 interface. You can not build GUI .NET programs with System.Windows.Forms without win32, which caused the Mono project a lot of problems, finally resulting in using WINE.

      If you want cross-platform GUI programs with .NET, you need to use GTK#, but then you could just as well use a cross-platform standard C-compiler and GTK++.

  16. While Python coders wait by LarryRiedel · · Score: 1

    While Java coders wait for SUN to be willing to accept any public standards

    I am not waiting for Java or Python to be accepted as a "public standard". I am confident in the trustees of these languages/platforms.

    Larry

  17. MOD PARENT DOWN -1 FLAMEBAIT ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Some lameness-filter stuff

  18. I hope ISO does better than they did with C++ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Where they took the ANSI standards, and adopted them verbatim.

    Except for the appendices. You know, the appendices that the main body refers to? They basically just dropped those from thier standard.

    So the ISO C++ standard was issued with references to non-existent parts.

    Really useful.

  19. What's the big fscking deal? by batlock · · Score: 1

    Other languages that are not standardized by the ECMA include Perl, Python, and PHP. They are still being used an awful lot.
    Sounds to me that an ECMA certificate is just some PR to impress the clueless PHBs.

    --

    Batlock...

    1. Re:What's the big fscking deal? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah but how many Perl/PHP/Python implementations are out there?

      The point of an ECMA/ISO standardized language (i.e. C++, Ansi C) is so you can write your code once, and guarantee it'll compile ten years from now as long as the compiler follows the standard.

      I wouldn't want to write a program in PHP or Perl that has a lifetime of a decade. It may run, but who says they're going to guarantee backward compatibility on some of the language semantics?

    2. Re:What's the big fscking deal? by LowneWulf · · Score: 1

      ... to impress the clueless PHBs who will be the ones deciding what their teams of developers will be writing their next major application in.

    3. Re:What's the big fscking deal? by bballad · · Score: 1

      I actualy know of a lot of shops writeing in perl. Mostly in the finacials for there back end stuff, you know the part that has to be quick and secure. J2EE and .net are stupid slow still.

    4. Re:What's the big fscking deal? by jedidiah · · Score: 1

      That only matters if you don't have any sourcecode for relevant compilers or interpreters. Once the implementation itself becomes standardized and open to re-use, making the associated specification a format standard is somewhat moot.

      Perl, PHP & Python exploit the underlying standards of the programming languages they are built with.

      The copylefted compiler doesn't hurt either.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    5. Re:What's the big fscking deal? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The good thing is, that in these uncertain economic times, the PHBs have more to worry about than what the programmers are using. Our 'mandated from above' ASP internal site uses Chilisoft ASP + Apache on Linux with UnixODBC, and the bulk of the code is in java classes. We're thinking about switching to tomcat or just using PHP. They'll never know the difference.

  20. Like the old saying goes... by Viral+Fly-by · · Score: 1

    "The good thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from..." One possible reason MS could be pushing standards for C# is that if there is a standard, they can blame errors in C# code on non-compliance rather than the inherent faults of the language.

    1. Re:Like the old saying goes... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The difference is any developer worth his source will know the standards and WILL make code that conforms, which can be verified. Which meams Microsoft has no excuse if it doesn't run fine.

    2. Re:Like the old saying goes... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So they're stealing another page out of the Java playbook?

  21. .NET trap by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    The way I understand it, MS is happy to make C# a public standard while retaining control of the only thing that makes C# interesting -- the .NET architecture.

    Still, I don't see why Sun would care if the Java language and it's JVM mechanism were public (as opposed to the spec for Java infrastructure components, corresponding to .NET)

  22. So what... by jkauzlar · · Score: 3, Insightful
    I think its great that Microsoft is doing this and its what Sun should have done at the start, but it doesn't mean a thing. C# (on top of CLR) is still only available on one platform and the underlying virtual machine is still proprietary.

    Because of its bindings with other MS technologies, C# code will never be fully portable to other platforms and so the ISO standard is meaningless unless you are already a Windows-only programmer. If you ARE a windows-only programmer, then you can at least be assured MS won't deprecate the entire language with their next version of .NET.

    1. Re:So what... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your right. It does not mean a thing because the language makes no difference at all. The VM, runtime support and libraries are the critical part and they are not standards nor, for the most part, documented.

      JCP isn't the greatest thing around but it works and it is the closest thing to managed and published standards out there. It is also a way that Microsoft will never take.

      I'll stick with Java.

    2. Re:So what... by sql*kitten · · Score: 1

      I think its great that Microsoft is doing this and its what Sun should have done at the start, but it doesn't mean a thing. C# (on top of CLR) is still only available on one platform and the underlying virtual machine is still proprietary.

      I post the link here every time the subject comes up, so I'm not going to this time, but you can easily find CLR and a C# compiler for FreeBSD (including source code) on Microsoft's web site. Maybe it compiles on OpenBSD and NetBSD too (I haven't tried). The only thing that stopping CLR from appearing on Solaris is that no-one's done it yet. And before anyone mentions Windows.Forms, I will point out that most server-side applications a) don't have a GUI or b) can generate a GUI in HTML easily.

    3. Re:So what... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Running .NET serverside is just as insane as running JSP serverside. The only purpose is to sell more huge Solaris servers. For .NET, even that reason would not make sence, as MS is not a hardware company (except mice, keyboards and X-box, none of which are useful as a huge server).

  23. Microsoft turning around by batkid · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It seems like Microsoft is trying to change their image from industry bully to industry team player. I have just been to an academic presentation of .NET and I must admit that MS studio .NET is very easy to learn and use, as well as being standards based.

    The problem that I see with Microsoft is their attitude of Windows being the only operating system. The entire .NET platform is built around Windows and the "Write in any language, run on windows" idea is not very attractive at least to me.

    You may argue that MS has already ported .NET to other OS (the rotor project). However, rotor is not meant to be used in production, which makes it rather useless in real life.

    If you look at the Java camp, however, things aren't that great either. The tools are generally not as well integrated and Sun is trying too hard to control Java.

    So, in conclusion, I'm not sure which is better. For now, I am staying with Java for my courses. But the battle is far from over :)

    1. Re:Microsoft turning around by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      .net is not standard compliant. Only a fraction of c# is. Its a sneaky move by Microsoft to show that they are the good guys opening up a whole platform but really they are not. .NET is a huge improvment technically over mfc and the win32api but I will never use it. I like my freedom and refuse to pay Microsoft to run or write my own software. Microsoft is seriously looking into renting and with paladium mixed with .net the match has been made. Before you know it your own computer wont run anything unless its signed by Ms.

      I refuse to support a company who has these kinds of ethics. I do not care if .net solves world hunger and prevents war.

    2. Re:Microsoft turning around by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Visual Basic was easy to use too. But anyway, if .NET is so "standards based", then where is the second party implementation? Last I checked there were many second party implementations of Java and all of them compete with each other on quality and ease of use. In the .NET world, there is Microsoft and there is Mono, and Mono's future is still uncertain since Microsoft has time and time again hinted it will use patents to suppress competing implementations of .NET, especially if they run on Linux, which is a significant threat to Microsoft.

    3. Re:Microsoft turning around by sheldon · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      "So, in conclusion, I'm not sure which is better. "

      Only because you've been confused by emotional arguments. Once you get past those and focus solely on the technical side, the answer is easy.

    4. Re:Microsoft turning around by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      PHP?

    5. Re:Microsoft turning around by sheldon · · Score: 1

      Wow... I actually got modded down for suggesting someone look at a technical decision from something other than an emotional standpoint.

      How illogical is that?

  24. Re:.NET trap (..mod parent up! ) by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

    This is true.

    This is marketware and brouchware for PHBs who hear critisim of c# from their employees regarding expensive vendor lock in.

    Microsoft is trying to look like the good guy supporting an open, portable standard but in the mean time Microsoft's c# clr is dependant on .net. Once brainwashed the developers using c# will use .net and all of the sudden be trapped and end up renting their own software.

    I heard arguments that Java is also patented but at least you can trust the jvm. Here Microsoft is opening the language syntax but keeping the actual compiler under stict controll.

  25. Academic Java programs that don't crash by anarxia · · Score: 1

    Before submitting a Java program make sure you have a try catch(Exception) block somewhere to catch all exceptions. No crash! With C and C++ programs you are pretty much screwed since you have to debug them and catch most of the memory leaks. Seriously though, you can't always blame students for turning in programs with bugs. You can't expect anyone to make a quality program with impossible deadlines.

    1. Re:Academic Java programs that don't crash by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As an instructor who teaches Java - I take off marks for those that have exceptions... and the same number of marks for those that have try/catch Exception or Throwable in an attempt to hide their exceptions.

      Just do the work - it takes longer to try and fool an instructor than it does to get it working - and if you get it to work you will learn something.

      As for C/C++ - Rational Purify (etc...) works well - if your institute isn't using it you should let them know about it.

    2. Re:Academic Java programs that don't crash by isorox · · Score: 1

      I take it you mean

      catch (Exception e) {System.out.println("Erk");}

      I'd like to see some programs that dont catch IOException, and still compile

    3. Re:Academic Java programs that don't crash by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I mean:

      catch(final Throwable ex) {}
      catch(final Exception ex) {}
      catch(final RuntimeExcption(ex) {}
      catch(() {}

      Where the {} has no code - so silently fail.
      Of course, generally speaking, you should never see the first three things - especially in student code.

    4. Re:Academic Java programs that don't crash by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's pretty shitty code. Anyone who makes blanket catches (silent!) and considers this a success because it wasn't "thrown" is an idiot. Take up C#, please.

  26. free documentation by BigChigger · · Score: 1

    There is so much FREE Java documentation on the net it's not funny. Most Java books are just reprints of this. Esp. see "Java Tutorial"

    BC

  27. No, the main argument is Project Monterey by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The main argument used is that SCO is the owner of SysV technology.

    No, the main argument is that SCO threw all their resources into Project Monterey, and IBM up and walked away with all the intellectual property.

  28. But then the de facto standard is the compiler by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    And how well or poorly it implements the ISO standards.

    While the code produced with all the "compiler asshole" options turned on will almost certainly be "better", it's not the ISO doing anything directly to help me.

    The real-world effect of standards is that code written under one compiler will work when compiled under another.

    Given the patented/proprietary nature of C#/.NET and Microsoft's history of extending architectures in propietary ways, a C# ISO standard is probably about as useful in making C# cross-platform as a one-man submarine would be.

  29. There are huge patent issues that have been by burgburgburg · · Score: 2, Informative

    glossed over and ignored to this point in both projects. Just because Microsoft has cut both off at the legs yet doesn't mean that they can't and won't.

  30. 100% Pure Java Supremacy: Join the Java Jidah! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny
    100% Pure Java is Racialy Supreme! Join the Java Jihad Today!

    Sun has created the 100% Pure Java Race! Write once, run anywhere, because there's nowhere to hide!

    All inferior languages must be wiped out, and history rewritten! Integration is capitulation! Segregate and exterminate the inferior languages!

    Never pollute Java by mixing it with those inferior mongrel languages. Java is Not meant to Interbreed with inferior languages! You MUST rewrite ALL your code in 100% Pure Java! Native Code is Uncivilized! All Primitives must be Converted!

    Java is God's Chosen Language! No other programming language is truly Turing Complete. Lisp is a Homosexual Programming Language! C++ has Negro Ancestors! C# is the Antichrist! Perl is Crypto-Zionist! Python has Simple Sin Tax and Semetics!

    Join the Java Jihad! Anyone who commits suicide by using Java against Microsoft is assured a place in Heaven! The surviving families of all Anti-Microsoft Martyrs will be Richly rewarded with Free Solaris Licenses.

    Java's true purpose is to be the ultimate Weapon of Mass Destruction in the war against the Great Satan: Bill Gates. Once he is vanquished, Sun will install a puppet government in Redmond, and the oil companies will move in and take over the humanitarian relief effort. Once we Wipe Out Microsoft, nothing will stand in our way of Reinflating the Dot Com Bubble!!!

    1. Re:100% Pure Java Supremacy: Join the Java Jidah! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      wow, that was fucking brilliant

    2. Re:100% Pure Java Supremacy: Join the Java Jidah! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      i predict a long profitable future for you in stand up

  31. Lots of reasons why I want .NET to fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    This note was originally published at John Munsch weblog on January the 14th.

    Lots of reasons why I want .NET to fail and fail badly

    It's benefits a criminal organization. Not one that's been found guilty of crimes once or maybe twice, but lots and lots of times. Those crimes are many and varied, but here's just a few of them: Stac Electronics v. Microsoft, DOJ v. Microsoft, Sun v. Microsoft.
    P.S. If you want to split hairs, Stac v. Microsoft isn't a criminal action, it's doesn't stem from a criminal abuse of their monopoly like the other two cases. Instead it was just a case of a small company being driven out of business by willful patent infringement, theft of trade secrets, etc.

    Microsoft isn't just one thing anymore. It's too damn big for that. I'm sure even Bill himself knows better than to think that he truly controls the whole ship because it's become big enough that he can't possibly know all the projects, people, etc. anymore. But even a really large company still has a kind of collective personality that it exudes and a large part of the personality both internal and external to Microsoft for many years now is that of a total control freak.
    If they don't own it, if they don't control it, if they didn't create it, if it doesn't have a broad stamp from Microsoft on it, then they don't want it. Sometimes it's sufficient for the thing to merely exist and they'll refuse to acknowledge it, other times they need to actively stamp it out because they can't control it.

    When was the last time you can remember Microsoft saying they supported a standard? That is, not something they invented and submitted a RFC for, an actual, take it off the shelf and re-implement it without renaming it or "improving" it so it doesn't work with anybody else standard. C++? Basic? HTML? A video or audio codec? Java? Anything?

    I'm sure there's something, somebody will point out their excellent support for TCP/IP or something and I'm sure that's true. But if you were to look at Microsoft as a person in your life, you'd wonder what was wrong with him or her such that so much had to be controlled by that person.

    When your business is selling the operating systems that 90+% of everybody uses, software development tools should not be a profit center.
    Why should I have to plunk down a couple of thousand dollars for a "universal subscription" in order to have access to compilers and basic development information? Sun doesn't have to do that? On this point I'll quote from the .NET "rebuttal" that I linked to above, "For non-profit use VS.NET can be had pretty cheaply, especially if you know anyone that is in college somewhere." Pretty cheaply? For a non-profit (that means charities, churches, universities, the hobbiest who is going to give away his work for FREE)... pretty cheaply? Wow. That is well and truly pathetic. To try and justify it, and say, oh well, you can try to scam an educational discount so it won't be so dear, is even more pathetic.

    Marketing. Have you been "lucky" enough to catch one of the .NET commercials with William H. Gacy telling you how great it is without really ever telling you anything about it? Microsoft doesn't trust .NET to stand on its own technical merits and it knows it may go like cod-liver oil down the gullets of a lot of people who have seen how the company works behind closed doors even if it were the tech shiznit.
    So they are going to pull a page out of Intel's bum-bum-buh-bum "Intel Inside" playbook and try to sell the brand like it's sneakers and cola. Trust us, you'll look cool if you use it, and we'll keep hammering the brand on TV so somebody who doesn't have much tech savvy in your organization will ask you if you are using it, or have plans to port to it, or whatever, even if he hasn't got a clue what "it" is in this case.

    They don't trust you. They don't like what they can't control and they can't control you. They can try and they always will keep trying bu

    1. Re:Lots of reasons why I want .NET to fail by tempny · · Score: 1

      You write a lot of interesting things, and I'm not going to dispute them as I'm sure at least some of them are true. Other than politics though, why do you want .net to fail? Do you code? If so, don't you care about the technical merits of .net? You don't list a single technical reason for why you want .net to fail, and as a technical product, isn't that the main standard on which .net should be judged? An analogy: you may hate the american government and have every right to do so, but is it fair to hate a potentially beneficial government action just because you hate the government?

  32. keep java free of certification by Nightshade · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Cerification will only slow things down for Microsoft. By not submitting Java to be certified, Sun maintains control over the language and is able to respond more quickly to development needs (and more rationally instead of making comporomises to suit all people's needs). Just look at how much progress has been made in Java since version 1.0! Will C# be able to evolve as quickly? Well, just look at what ISO certification and too many comporomises did to C++!

    1. Re:keep java free of certification by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What's wrong with C++?

  33. Waiting? by jmott · · Score: 1

    I have yet to meet a "Java coder" who is waiting for any outside firm to standardize Java. Java works and works well, and *plenty* of professionals make good money developing Java applications. At least Sun is being honest about the level of control they want over their language. Microsoft is doing PR and will most certainly break their own standards as they have in the past when it helps to crush competition. So what good is a standard that even its creators don't conform to? It's meaningless fodder, an atempt to out PR Sun. As a professional Java developer, I can tell you whether or not Java has public standards has never entered into any development discusion. We're much more concerned about whether or not Java is capible of meeting the client's requirements -- and it always does!

    1. Re:Waiting? by Stalcair · · Score: 1
      We're much more concerned about whether or not Java is capible of meeting the client's requirements -- and it always does!
      Great news. See, I've got crack in my foundation at my business and was hoping that you could write a Java program to fix it cheap.
      --

      I seek not only to follow in the footsteps of the men of old, I seek the things they sought.

  34. whew by twitter · · Score: 1
    Thanks for the Python example. For a minute there, I thought that things had gotten really bad. Can you imagine a world so poor that M$ has to actually invent standards to embrace, extend and extinguish? It's a good thing they can only kill things on their own platforms.

    --

    Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.

  35. "You" was meant in a generic sense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Of course there are exceptions.

    But the fact remains that most academic work is "one-shot" type applications. From what little you've said I'd venture that even your integrations or simulations are of that type. Are they designed to run 30 or 40 or more threads at a time, and randomly starting and stopping them constantly? Or do you just fire them up for one run and come back in a week to read the answers from the now-completed process?

    The point is that "real-world" is much different from academia. Research by definition is out beyond bleeding edge. About the only thing that matters in "real-world" is "Does it work?"

  36. release as GPL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    if sun released java as GPL, they wouldn't have to worry that a competitor could appropriate it with proprietary modifications. any modifications would have to be available to sun and all other platform users.

    -rishab

    1. Re:release as GPL by eversunsoft · · Score: 1
      Agreed. I like the idea of releasing the language as GPL or another such license. As long as the language still has strong leadership, like the Linux for instance, it would certainly be able to address the needs of users.

      Additionally, there is enough industry support from enough strong players in the industry that the language would continue to be pushed forward in development. This assertion is based on game theory. It is really in everyone's best interest that the language of Java is made to be as capable and free of proprietary restrictions as possible.

      The only thing that I don't understand is, what the effect of releasing an application with an embedded VM would be. If released under GPL, could somone still charge for such an application?

      ds

  37. bridge to CORBA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I will take notice of C# and all the other abortionate .NET stuff once somebody implements an open-source CORBA bridge for it.

    Even then, I won't develop with it; but I will start to consider interfacing to systems implemented in it.

  38. Cut down C++? by Inoshiro · · Score: 1

    I rather thank that C# and Java have language features that C++ doesn't have, like a working garbage collector, interfaces, events, etc.

    --
    --
    Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
    1. Re:Cut down C++? by be-fan · · Score: 2, Informative

      Hm, garbage collection is a non-feature. You can do it in C++ (and it works just fine as long as you avoid C-style code), but it doesn't fit with the "C++ way of doing things." The preferred way of doing things in C++ is to use smart pointers that do reference counting. It's not any better or worse, just different.

      Java and C# interfaces are basically just restricted multiple-inheritence implementations. You can argue all you want about whether MI is good, but can you do something with interfaces that you can't with abstract base classes?

      Events can be implemented very cleanly without language support, as in libsigc++. The recent comparison of libsigc++ to C# delegates (search OSNews) showed that even though libsigc++ is an out-of-language feature, it is comparable in power and ease of use to delegates.

      The only real thing C++ is missing is introspection and reflection. Not important for most code, but for some stuff (transparent serialization) it's crucial. Hopefully, this will be one of the things addressed in the C++ 0x standard.

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
    2. Re:Cut down C++? by Inoshiro · · Score: 1

      "You can argue all you want about whether MI is good, but can you do something with interfaces that you can't with abstract base classes?"

      Make most interface implementation compile-time checked, and ensure that the programmer has thought things through in a way which discourages ambigious inheritance chains.

      "Events can be implemented very cleanly without language support, as in libsigc++."

      I could use assembler, too, but I want the language to work for me as much as possible.

      I'm of the computer science bent that languages properly designed will reduce my workload towards only working on specific abstractions, not figuring out how to implement X or Y with only basic building blocks. I could write C with a vague form of class support through structures and function pointers, or I could use C++ and get it compile time type checked or warned. I could write C++ with events, or I could just use a language which implements them natively.

      I prefer native support, because it leaves less open to creative interpretation (how many string classes were there in the mid 1990s?).

      --
      --
      Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
    3. Re:Cut down C++? by be-fan · · Score: 1

      Make most interface implementation compile-time checked, and ensure that the programmer has thought things through in a way which discourages ambigious inheritance chains.
      >>>>>>>>
      I don't follow. MI in C++ is completely type checked.

      I could use assembler, too, but I want the language to work for me as much as possible.
      >>>>>>>>
      Using assempler is a huge step away from implementing a certain feature in a library instead of the language proper. libsigc++ (and Boost.Signal) are already written for you, all you have to do is use it. Once using it, it's as easy to use as a built-in mechanism would be. This is different from trying to do object oriented programming in C, which doesn't natively support it, because the end result is clean and easy to use, unlike something like GObject.

      not figuring out how to implement X or Y with only basic building blocks.
      >>>>>>>>>>
      You're point makes no sense. You're not limited to the basic building blocks. You've got very powerful standard (STL) and semi-standard (Boost) libraries to work with. Complaining about events being implemented on as a user library in C++ is like complaining that the collection classes in Java aren't implemented at the language level.

      A language is sufficiently complete if you can do most useful abstractions easily within the constraints of the language. C++ isn't sufficiently complete -- thanks to the algorithms portion of the standard library, lambda's and higher-order functions seem like they should be there, but aren't. Java is even less sufficiently complete -- You can't (yet) cleanly make homogenous containers like in the STL, you can't do contracts, etc.

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
  39. Reality Check by Brian+Blessed · · Score: 2, Insightful
    People here (like this comment) keep naively thinking that the supposed standardizations will lead to a wonderful cross platform programming nirvana.

    Microsoft *will* scupper these efforts because they have retained the power to do so and they want to ensure the continuation of their monopoly.

    It is easy to mentally sweep the problems under the carpet and focus too closely on the wonderful promises (which is why so many IT managers can't see alternatives to MS servers). With .NET the real showstoppers for me are:
    • Microsoft's CLI bugs will be the standard
    • The parts that aren't standardized will require serious kludges (like using Wine with Mono)

    - Brian
  40. Its the patents, stupid ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful
    So what if there is an "official" ISO standard of C# - what does that mean in any practical sense? That you gotta pay $$ to get a copy of the standards document?! Microsoft can always do to this ISO "standardized" C# what it tried to do with Java - add proprietary extensions to its heart's content while still claiming that standards are being implemented (All for the benefit of the customer of course).

    Recall Microsoft claiming that Windows NT implemented the POSIX standards - which it did in the strictest sense but not in any practical degree. Or how about the fact that Microsoft C++ has yet to fully implement the ISO C++ standard. Microsoft easily has the resourses to do this - but they'll continue to claim that there are other priorities (such as their non-standard extensions ...)

    What matters are the libraries which actually implement all of the functionality - and guess who determines what those APIs are? These are still tiightly in the control of Microsoft (compared to the JCP used to propose and codify new Java APIs). The Java Community Process, as flawed as it is, is a heck of a bigger step towards an truly open process than simply handing off an already finished language standard to a standards body.

    Then there is the touchy little issue regarding the patents that Microsoft has or is the process of filing that will directly impact on the use of C# (language, CLI, and libraries). Mono will never be widely adopted, especially on non-Microsoft platforms, until this cloud of ownership involving intellectual rights is fully lifted.

    Heck, I'm still waiting for an ISO version of Perl before I *even* think of allowing that language used in my company ...

    1. Re:Its the patents, stupid ... by unconfused1 · · Score: 1

      Awesome comment! I agree.

      I can still recall writing C++ code for an old class using the GNU C++ compiler on Linux...and having people in the rest of the class, using M$ Visual Studio of course, not being able to compile my code. Just to comment no the C++ standard example...I can relate.

    2. Re:Its the patents, stupid ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Uh, that means that you and your second-rate product are out of the standard.

      Stop and look at the facts, overzealous idiot.

  41. Cornell CS and language specificity by JeremyR · · Score: 1
    If that's true about Cornell, it's a pity. When I was there, the CS deparment was so language-agnostic, the "C" class was just a two-week, 1 credit course, and that was the only class offered for a specific language. (Some were close: CS 100 used Pascal, and many AI classes used LISP or Scheme, but those were "Introduction to Programming" and AI classes, not classes in Pascal, LISP or Scheme). In fact, for my Data Structures class, the professor let us use any language we wanted (I took it as an opportunity to teach myself C++ and implement the homework assignments in an object-oriented way).

    I don't think language-specific classes are all that valuable. (I'm pretty much self-taught in BASIC, C++, and Java, and have had very little difficulty picking up new languages as necessary.) If a specific language is truly required for a class (even for practical considerations such as grading assignments) then it's understandable, but the fact that Cornell for the most part stressed computer science concepts over choice of language was an asset to the CS department (in my opinion).

    If Cornell has gone from this, to the point where they specifically use one language (any language--C# or Java or whatever), then that's a step backwards.

    Cheers,
    Jeremy

  42. That is a stupid argument by LibertineR · · Score: 2, Insightful
    It's an argument made by those who are not paid much to code. There is nothing wrong with using an IDE, if that IDE makes you more productive.

    An IDE is not going to make a lowsy programmer better, but it will help a good programmer to write more code with less effort. On top of that, as IDE's go, show me a better one than VS.NET?

    REAL PROGRAMMERS take advantage of any and every tool that they can, that will help them get code written, compiled, debugged and SHIPPED.

    If you can do it faster in EMACS or Notepad, good for you, but dont knock other developers because they use tools.

    You sound like someone who tightens the lugnuts on their car with their thumbs, and screams "REAL MECHANICS dont NEED a lugwrench".

    Idiot.

    1. Re:That is a stupid argument by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      show me a better one than VS.NET?

      Websphere application development suite.

    2. Re:That is a stupid argument by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Heh. Anyhow, back to the question...

    3. Re:That is a stupid argument by LibertineR · · Score: 1

      You have not seen VS.NET if you believe that. Go away.

    4. Re:That is a stupid argument by curtisk · · Score: 1
      Bravo! Nothing is more annoying than "high-horse" techies....shit, whatever gets the job done, do it!

      A hack-job is a hack-job and good programming is good programming, IDE or not...

      "REAL programmers, actually manually flip the AND and XOR gates on their CPUs!!!!poo-poo!"
      LOL!
      --

      Sehr geehrter Toilettenbenutzer!

    5. Re:That is a stupid argument by pyrrho · · Score: 1

      MS has made the best IDE and CASE tools.

      However, they are leveraging those tools to keep you specific to MS technology. I liked using MSDev Studio for C++. But MS is dragging people into their world via MFC, etc., and now they have a tool that is not the best if flexibility and freedom of choice are of any import. For some, or most, perhaps it isn't important.

      For me, it has and will always be important to increase the granularity of my choices. The MS IDE is nice, but it's also a political/business tool that tries to make a pawn out of developers.

      This is a serious issue.

      --

      -pyrrho

    6. Re:That is a stupid argument by Alex+Blume · · Score: 1

      "On top of that, as IDE's go, show me a better one than VS.NET?"
      Intellij IDEA (Java only, sorry.)

      Put down the Visual Studio, and enjoy getting off the MS development tool treadmill. (Personally, I don't like having to learn a complete new tech stack whenever Microsoft tells me to. That's why I stay completely away from their languages and their development tools.)

    7. Re:That is a stupid argument by Jord · · Score: 1
      Amazing how defensive some people get when you tell them that the IDE does not make the language.

      I have said it before and I will say it again. If you MUST HAVE a super powerful IDE that wipes your ass for you, you need to find another job. If you cannot write your code without it then you are not coding the IDE is.

      Part of the problem with many of today's software offerings is people write with these IDEs who do everything for them then wonder why their code has security leaks and performs poorly.

      If you ever want to be a serious programmer. Learn the language not the IDE. There is nothing wrong with using a good tool to make you more productive. But if you cannot write the code yourself who are you fooling?

    8. Re:That is a stupid argument by dpt · · Score: 1

      An IDE is not going to make a lowsy programmer better, but it will help a good programmer to write more code with less effort

      I've tried to use various IDEs through the years, starting with the early Turbo Pascals, but I found that they didn't actually add anything useful to the development process. Just my experience. If one appeared, I'd be happy to use it. As it stands, nothing is offered to make it worth what I lose from leaving Emacs.

      On top of that, as IDE's go, show me a better one than VS.NET?

      If it doesn't force me to use those annoying MS "project" files I might try it out! That's been the biggest problem with the "Visual" range of tools to date. For me, anyway, but I have very large scale requirements and the need to support many developers on many target platforms at once.

      Oh, and the VS.NET editor *must* support regular expressions!

      You sound like someone who tightens the lugnuts on their car with their thumbs, and screams "REAL MECHANICS dont NEED a lugwrench"

      A wrench performs an obviously useful function. I honestly have yet to find an IDE that offers *any* useful functionality whatever, over, say, Emacs. Don't worry, this isn't just directed at MS ... I had the same exact experience with "Eclipse". I tried it due to the gushings of some rabid "refactoring" fan-boys, discovered it didn't add anything actually useful at all, and went back to Emacs.

      If someone can name a feature that actually increases productivity, I promise I'll look at the corresponding IDE. I don't hold out much hope, however.

      And then there's the fact that I have observed that the people rabidly preferring IDEs to the extent that they attempt (in vain) to force *me* to use them are at the lower end of the experience and ability curve, or are the more clueless managers. That could just be an anomaly, though.

  43. standard schmandard... by st0rmcold · · Score: 1


    Let me put it this way, and I'm sure most programmers feel like this, as it only makes sense.

    I am the standard.

    When I am confronted with a task, I don't go see ISO to see what they say everyone should use, of course not, I analyze my situation and choose the proper format/language everything should be created in, as there are ups and downs to most any language. That standard should be everyone's judgement call, as that's how most professionals work, and nothing is gonna change by this.

    If a language suits someones needs, it will be used regardless of any standards approved by ISO.

    --
    Posting useless rant since 2003.
  44. Other scores to report... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    C# 2, Java 0 - Q1
    Death 1, Saddam 0 - F
    Trolls 3, Moderators 2 - 2Q
    John Ashcroft 72, Civil Rights 0 - 3Q

  45. I hate to point out the obvious by smackdaddy · · Score: 1

    I hate to point out the obvious here since the whole slashdot crowd seems reactionary, but the standards really mean nothing. They have standardized the language. Whoopie the syntax is standardized. They have not standardized the class libraries which are the important part. That is what everyone is going to program in. So if you implement that standard you can't do much with it, without class libraries. Imagine programing in C without the standard libraries as well you are limited in what you can do, without writing for a specific os, and in a language like C# (or even Java) that is compiled to an intermediate langange and runs in a virtual machine you can't do anything without class libraries. So go ahead and build your C# environment from the specs you still won't be able to run MS's code on it. The Java Bytecode is a spec that you could implement as well, you just don't have the right to use the Trademark. You have the same issue there where you need the class libraries. But I would personally rather use Java where there is community involvement in the development and evolution of the language, rather than have the standard dictated to me by MS. But what do I know I am just a software developer unlike most of the people who bitch that don't write and code (they just want all their code to be free).

  46. SOMEONE PLEASE MOD THIS FOOL DOWN by LibertineR · · Score: 1

    I dont have time to write all the areas in which this idiot is wrong.

  47. public versus bureaucratic by pohl · · Score: 3, Insightful
    The headline of this article is misleading. Java is a public standard: it is completely and unambiguously documented in public documents, and any member of the public has license to use those documents to create an independent and conformant implementation.

    What Java lacks is a bureaucratic standard: one where the document was given a stamp of approval by some committee that companies can buy a seat on. This latter kind of public standard actually makes it more difficult for me, a member of the public, to influence the content of the documents.

    But, you know what? I don't really care much about influencing the content of the documents. My priorities are
    • that the documents exist
    • that they are complete
    • that they are unambiguous
    • that I have license to create a conformant implemention.

    Beyond that, it's all marketing hype. Java is a public standard in the same sense that PDF is, and that's good enough for me.
    --

    The "cue the foo posts in 3, 2, 1..." posts will commence with no subsequent foo posts in 3, 2, 1...

  48. ISO Certification by nberardi · · Score: 1

    What many of you are forgetting is that inorder for a language to be used in mission critical applications in the U.S. Goverment it needs to go through a Standards Board and be ISO certified. This is a key requirement along with many others when defense contracters are taking a bid. I am not saying that they will ever use C# for mission critical applications, but C# is now closer than Java is.

    1. Re:ISO Certification by crackervoodoo · · Score: 1

      I believe you're confusing ISO with CMM(I).

    2. Re:ISO Certification by nberardi · · Score: 1

      Yeah CMM is a method for producing good software with good practices. But the ISO 9001 standard is nessisary for alot of projects.

  49. This is all BS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    C# and CLR are useless without Microsoft's proprietary .NET Framework

  50. Amusing by The+Bungi · · Score: 2, Insightful
    It's so funny how most of the comments so far in this article are saying essentially that certification is useless and means squat, and that Sun is doing the right thing by keeping control of Java and most people have no use for Java certification anyway so what's the point and it just works and "M$" is evil.

    If Java had received some sort of certification and Microsoft wasn't bothering to do the same thing for C#, the comments would all read "see? that's proof that m$ is evil and Java is Superior!!1!! What are they afraid of? But nooooo, they NEVER play by the book or accepts standards! M$ is evil!!!1! .NET sucks!!"

    There would be dozens of insightful posts pointing out how certification is a Good Thing and how Java once again r0xx0rz because of it. Other posts would go into long tirades about how .NET is a failed effort because C# is not certified. And ad nauseaum.

    I think things like these speak volumes about how people approach their... ah... "dislike" of Microsoft. If they do [something], it's wrong and evil. If they don't do [something], they're wrong and evil for not doing it.

    But I suppose them's the dregs.

    1. Re:Amusing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      As others have said before, each language has it's benefits and both are designed with certain focus. First and foremost, C# and .NET is designed for client apps. If you disagree and haven't read through more than 50% of the API, don't bother responding. Java isn't perfect and I'm definitely pissed they haven't made it a public standard. If they did it right now, it would effectively kill C# and .NET for server stuff. For windows clients, C# is better than VB hands down.


      But there are a ton of major weaknesses of C# and .NET that make it inappropriate for hardcore server applications that have to scale to thousands of concurrent requests. And before you say, there's been benchmarks showing .NET is faster, look at the SQL Server and ADO.NET docs on MSDN and tell me how sql server is going to handle say 1500 concurrent queries when it's max connections in the pool is ~250. I looked at several .NET multithreading books to see how persistent server threads are handled. Guess what, of the three I looked at, none of the address that issue. Even worse, .NET's threadpool is limited to 25. Again, if you have an app that has to support 80 concurrent requests and respond within 800milliseconds, IIS and .NET won't be able to handle it.


      That's not to say .NET sucks, it just is strong at a specific set of apps and terrible at others. The same is true of java.

    2. Re:Amusing by mrkurt · · Score: 1

      What I think a lot of folks are saying is that the certification of C# is meaningless-- it's what the companies do, and it's more a matter of who do you trust more? The biggest beef I have with Sun is not that they haven't sought to have Java standardized (the Java Community Process seems to work well enough)-- it's that they havenn't pushed hard enough to enhance the capabilities of Java, i.e., make the JVM more efficient, extend the capabilities of Java, etc. C# may be standardized but MS might change the language tomorrow for all I know, and you'd be starting from scratch if you're a C# programmer-- and you'd really be in deep doodoo if you are a Mono developer.

      --
      Always look on the briight side of life! (whistle, whistle)
    3. Re:Amusing by LibertineR · · Score: 0

      Any multitier Web Application that NEEDS to handle 1500 concurrent queries only proves that either the architect or the entire development team are nothing but IDIOTS.

    4. Re:Amusing by Jord · · Score: 1
      Where is your proof to back up your claims that everyone who has posted "so what" on the standard has said differently in the past?

      Support your claims (as others have in this discussion).

    5. Re:Amusing by The+Bungi · · Score: 1
      C# may be standardized but MS might change the language tomorrow for all I know

      I don't understand this - Microsoft may be evil, but do you really think they're that stupid?

    6. Re:Amusing by The+Bungi · · Score: 1
      Where is your proof to back up your claims that everyone who has posted "so what" on the standard has said differently in the past?

      Please point out where I asserted that "people who have championed the submission of Java to a standards body are now saying they don't really care about it". I can't really see that in my post - mainly because there has never been an attempt by Sun to do that.

      Unless I'm not getting your request for "proof".

      Support your claims (as others have in this discussion).

      "Support your claims" is a bit of a fallacy when used in the context of Slashdot, don't you think?

      Besides, I make no claims - I merely point out an amusing double standard that is based more on feelings than it is on fact.

    7. Re:Amusing by j3110 · · Score: 1

      I dare you to write a program using only C# the language.

      Aside from the fact that .Net isn't a standard (only C# is), I have a voice in the direction of Java. SUN created a group called the JCP (Java Community Process) that is the ISO and ECMA of Java.

      When you can say that you have a word in an ISO or ECMA "standard", you let me know. They are no more standard than the JCP.

      If .Net was a standard, and there were actually multiple implementations of this standard (to prove it is a standard that won't change just to break things), then I might be persuaded to have your optimism for .Net and MS.

      Do you expect people to forget MS's track record? They gutted Java, and you pretend like they can't still do the same to .Net if anyone else implements it. .Net was not built for portability. It was built only to work with other MS products. The ideas and principals that went into .Net assume that you'll be running on windows with windows widgets. .Net is BS, and you're just on the bandwagon running off the edge of the cliff if you think any real server with real hardware will ever support .Net. IBM is your only hope of this, but they have deaply invested in Java. X86 is not everyone's solution. Some data centers need 64 way IBM systems to get the kind of performance they need. You get back to me when I can do that with .Net. In the meantime, I'll be enjoying the fact that the latest version of Java already up and running on real server hardware and real server operating systems.

      Maybe Slashdot will stop flying the .Net banner until we see some real action in the arena other than political moves. I don't want to hear another word until Mono runs Microsoft's demo applications (like Donkey.Net :) ).

      --
      Karma Clown
    8. Re:Amusing by mrkurt · · Score: 1

      My friend, it's not a matter of stupidity, it's a matter of greed. It's in their interest to keep their languages, operating system, and applications as proprietary as possible, in order to hang on to their monopoly. If you're developing on .NET, be prepared to relearn everything you know in a couple of years-- it will change because they are changing the file system on Longhorn to squeeze out every programming tools except those that are Microsoft-endorsed. They really aren't interested in anyone but themselves in creating tools to develop for Windows, and I can see them changing things around to deep-six Mono or any other third party software.

      --
      Always look on the briight side of life! (whistle, whistle)
    9. Re:Amusing by The+Bungi · · Score: 1
      I dare you to write a program using only C# the language.

      That sort of defeats the whole point of things like Java and .NET, eh? Can you write a Java program without the JRE? Or, can you write a C program without the CRT? You *can*, but do you *want* to?

      Aside from the fact that .Net isn't a standard (only C# is)

      The CLI has been submitted to ECMA as well. But I guess that just escaped you.

      I have a voice in the direction of Java

      I doubt that's particularly valuable. I'd rather have a product's roadmap be dictated by market pressures. After all, we use them to make a living.

      If .Net was a standard, and there were actually multiple implementations of this standard

      Mono and the CLI for BSD not doing it for you? .NET is (barely) two years old, in any case.

      It was built only to work with other MS products [...] assume that you'll be running on windows with windows widgets

      "Widgets" aside, most everything that is not Windows specific can and has been adapted to other platforms. And there's lots of that. The Windows forms namespace was a compromise between performance and portability. I'd rather not have to deal with another Swing or (shudder) AWT, thanks.

      Other than that, if you're writing server-side apps, you should be OK. It's only a matter of time before someone (even Microsoft) comes up with an application server implementation that is not COM-specific.

      Net is BS [...] real server hardware and real server operating systems

      You're so 1337!

    10. Re:Amusing by The+Bungi · · Score: 1
      You are entirely missing the point.

      But let's assume that Microsoft decides to shoot itself in the foot and introduces this newfangled file system that breaks every application in sight (like they did for Win16 apps and NTFS, eh? Oh, no. They didn't).

      So let's go with that. The FS is different. Guess what? I fully expect Microsoft to fix the System.IO namespace so that it works with the new FS and my apps work the same way they do with NTFS and FAT32. And they'll do it. Why? Because they run a business and they can't affod to alienate me (see "greed"). And if I happened to write my own CLI implementation for Windows, I suppose I owe it to my clients and users to do the same thing. But I fail to see how that will affect a CLI implementation written for BeOS.

      Ahhh, but you're confusing implementation with interface. The CLI is ECMA-standardized and dictates how languages behave in .NET (among other things), but the implementation is hardly a standard. That's the point, isn't it? Anyone can write their own CLI and runtime. Isn't that "freedom"? Supposedly I can do the same thing with Java, but Java is somehow better than .NET. Not because it's technologically better, but because it's not a Microsoft product.

      And BTW, if you could spare a few cycles of that excellent crystal ball you seem to have, let me know. I need to win the lottery.

    11. Re:Amusing by Lukey+Boy · · Score: 1

      Regardless of stupidity, they've done it before. Look at the most recent version of Visual Basic .NET - no old projects will compile. AFAIK many language-specific features like dynamic arrays are now gone since they weren't shoehorned into the .NET architecture.

    12. Re:Amusing by mrkurt · · Score: 1

      First of all, I really don't want to use Microsoft's dev tools because it locks me into Windows. I would rather program with Java or Python, where the app is sufficiently cross-platform that I don't have to rewrite it for Linux, Macintosh, or whatever. Sure, you'll be able to convert your Windows apps to the new file system, as long as it's written in C# or VB-- under any other language you might be SOL.

      I think you're incredibly ingenuous if you think that Microsoft is not going to make this change in an attempt to wring the last drop of blood out of its customers. A lot of companies are getting fed up, especially where it concerns the server side. Check out this article to see what I'm talking about. Even if you discount it by about a quarter to a half, it's still not good news for Visual Studio developers.

      --
      Always look on the briight side of life! (whistle, whistle)
    13. Re:Amusing by f00zbll · · Score: 1
      Any multitier Web Application that NEEDS to handle 1500 concurrent queries only proves that either the architect or the entire development team are nothing but IDIOTS

      Talk about a troll. Just because the parent post mentions 1500 concurrent requests, doesn't mean there aren't political or resource restrictions that make that kind of functional demands. You must have never worked on an application that actually has to support that level of concurrency or ever worked on complex applications.

    14. Re:Amusing by elflord · · Score: 1
      I dare you to write a program using only C# the language.

      I dare you to write a program using only C the language.

      I don't want to hear another word until Mono runs Microsoft's demo applications

      I don't want to hear another word until gcc compiles Microsoft's demo applications.

      Seriously, standardisation is a good thing. It's not a magic bullet, but it's a good thing. Regarding your point, if the standard were such that any standard implementation could run any of Microsofts demo applications, the tradeoff would be that the standard would be harder to implement, and that means fewer conforming implementations (that would basically make it just a formal declaration of MS's implementation) So IMO it's a good thing that the standard is not exhaustive.

    15. Re:Amusing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think what he is referring to is that if a web app needs to support 1500 concurrent requests, that the architect should implement some load- balancing so it doesnt have to support that much.

      my $0.02

    16. Re:Amusing by LibertineR · · Score: 1
      Thanks.

      I thought that Slashdotters were smart enough to understand my point. I guess not all of them, huh?

    17. Re:Amusing by LibertineR · · Score: 1

      You are obviously not an architect. Shut the fuck up and learn something.

    18. Re:Amusing by The+Bungi · · Score: 1
      VB.NET is a different situation. For years VB users complained that they had a second rate language with diminished capabilities - even if Microsoft had not ported VB to .NET, most existing VB code would probably have been broken in some way or another anyway. The 32-64 bit issue, OO features, etc. VB was in for a major change, and it just happened to be in step with .NET.

      Most VB developers either like VB.NET or are moving to C#, which as far as Microsoft is concerned is just fine. In any case, VB6 will be supported until 2008. The average life of a VB application at the corporate level is 4 years.

      You can't have your cake and eat it.

    19. Re:Amusing by The+Bungi · · Score: 1
      Sure, you'll be able to convert your Windows apps to the new file system, as long as it's written in C# or VB-- under any other language you might be SOL.

      Sigh. Again, you're missing the point.

      Even if you discount it by about a quarter to a half, it's still not good news for Visual Studio developers.

      Again, you make the assumption that Microsoft is stupid. They may be a lot of things, but they're sure as heck not stupid.

    20. Re:Amusing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      OOOh tough words :) Obviously load balancing is one way to go, but what happens when that's not an option? I can think of plenty of situations where that isn't an option because the data is used by a variety of clients and the data has to be up-to-date. Take order tracking systems that has to keep an accurate record of the current inventory. If there's 80 guys filling orders and each as 2 orders open, do you really want to break that data up into several database using partitions? If you use SQL Server 2K, you will easily reach 150 concurrent queries. At that point Microsoft will advice you to setup two servers and partition it. But if you have to provide absolutely redundancy and failover, that means realtime data replication. Go ask a SQL Server DBA how reliable realtime data replication is. Again, have you ever had to deal with database installation that had high concurrency requirements. Financial applications will easily consume 2K concurrent connections. In those situations, DB2, Sybase or Oracle is installed on a cluster of database with realtime data replication setup. Especially for Oracle financial. Back up your words with real examples, if you can. Saying load balance is just another buz word.

  51. WTF Slashdot? by JohnwheeleR · · Score: 1
    I see a lot of anti-MS posts being modded down for what seems no good reason. Are we going to have to start setting our thresholds to 0 so we can see some good content and differing opinions around here?

    Let's not forget something Slashdot: Microsoft is a screwed up company. They always have been and probably always will be. They screwed Java developers and users over with there fscked up version of the JVM. They screwed Netscape out of competing with them in the browser business. They ripped off graphical desktop computing from Xerox. Ad nauseum, the list goes on and on. Not to mention their products suck. That just goes without saying.

    Instead of posting stupid headlines like Microsoft 2, Sun 0, just stick to the news that matters. "Yay, Microsoft work is getting ISO approval" would have been easier on the eyes. In fact, I read the article you linked to the story and it doesn't particularly emphasize Sun not having an ISO standard. In fact, it talks about sun having the JCP, which is a more flexible way to maintain specs and standards anyway IMO. Give me a break SlashdotXP.

  52. Just like POSIX compatibility for Windows NT by ink · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Microsoft did the same thing back in the early nineties. They added a "POSIX compatibility layer" to Windows NT and then went around getting gullable (ahem) reporters to praise their new Standards Compliant(tm) operating system. We all know the end result of that; Cygwin even had to go back to the drawing board to get any common POSIX application to compile for NT.

    Meanwhile, Linux isn't "officially" UNIX or even POSIX-certified; and yet it's still much more POSIXish than Windows NT is. The same is true for dotNet vs. Java/J2EE; the one has lip service from standards bodies while the other is more-or-less fully open.

    --
    The wheel is turning, but the hamster is dead.
    1. Re:Just like POSIX compatibility for Windows NT by Billly+Gates · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Actually Microsoft did this not to run Unix apps but to get government contracts which require posix compliance. Microsoft made sure it was crippled in return so they would migrate to win32 after it became apparent that the posix layer was broken.

    2. Re:Just like POSIX compatibility for Windows NT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Microsoft Interix was UNIX98 Certified at one point.

      Also, NT's base POSIX layer was never advertised, so I your must be sniffing glue.

    3. Re:Just like POSIX compatibility for Windows NT by 6 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Interix and the native NT4 posix layer are completely different things.

      Interix is indeed fully posix compliant and you are actually more likely to get a posix program to compile under it than under cygwin. For more information including a free 120 day trial version go to...

      http://www.microsoft.com/windows/sfu/

      obDisclaimer:

      Why yes I do work for Microsoft, and yes I even work in that part of Microsoft.

    4. Re:Just like POSIX compatibility for Windows NT by Spiked_Three · · Score: 1

      Microsoft's implementation of POSIX isn't broken - POSIX is broken. Governement employees demanded POSIX only as a way to avoid Microsoft winning bids. They did not really have any POSIX compliant software - hell POSIX doesnt define file sharing or printing, and especially not GUIs - in short it was worthless.
      Look back at IBM's cobol compiler for the mainframe - it supported ANSI compliance - of which no one used, but it was required to win government bids.
      I remember when IBM was dissing POSIX and Open Systems, now look at em.
      Sun needs to do something with Java, it's so immature and it is taking so long to mature into something usable. .Net has surpassed Java in it's first release - I guess thatis just what happens when one company has billions of dollars for R&D and the other can barely meet payroll.

      --
      slashdot troll = you make a compelling argument I do not like the implications of.
    5. Re:Just like POSIX compatibility for Windows NT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I worked in the government shops for a long time. I know the only Posix compliancy MS had was in the printing subsystem, that's it. Just like their claim of C2 cert was bullshit: it only passed if NETWORKING wasn't used; what the hell good was that? They got to put a seal on it that said "we got C2 certification". And the Posix compliancy was so they could use it as leverage. That is all they look for, leverage, instead of just fucking competing. Note how they shelved MS Golf right after they bought the best damn golf game out there, Access Software's Links.
      C# may be end up with standards out the ass, but in the end, it is a "Java-like" language (the man who designed it ripped off Java for it, just like he ripped off Pascal to create Delphi for Borland), and one that only runs in a shitty proprietary environment, aka .NET. MS can .KISS my .ASS, and that's that. If you write C#, you might as well write Java. Then, your program will have the capability to run on more PCs, including older Windows machines, i.e., those that don't want to pay out the .BUTT to upgrade to that "Windows for Teletubbies" shite called XP so you can get .NET and run C# programs...

    6. Re:Just like POSIX compatibility for Windows NT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why yes I do work for Microsoft, and yes I even work in that part of Microsoft.

      Then may I say thanks - I use Interix 3 and it f**king rocks.

    7. Re:Just like POSIX compatibility for Windows NT by bcemoli · · Score: 1

      When I read the URL included, I thought it said "stfu" not "sfu".

      D'oh!

  53. wrox press business by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    well, wrox press went out of business from investing in M$ .net.

  54. Not exactly by JeremyR · · Score: 1
    Before submitting a Java program make sure you have a try catch(Exception) block somewhere to catch all exceptions. No crash!
    "Crash" merely means that the program stops executing as intended. If at some point the code throws, for example, a NullPointerException due to the programmer's oversight, catching all Exceptions at the top level won't prevent the program from stopping unexpectedly ("crashing").
    Seriously though, you can't always blame students for turning in programs with bugs. You can't expect anyone to make a quality program with impossible deadlines.
    Making quality programs with impossible deadlines... what do you think the real world largely consists of?

    Cheers,
    Jeremy

    1. Re:Not exactly by wuice · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The real world consists of plenty of quality programs with greatly extended deadlines (because the "real" deadline was impossible), as well as horrible programs delivered on time. Plenty of examples of each.

      Impossible deadlines are, by definition, impossible.

    2. Re:Not exactly by JeremyR · · Score: 1
      The real world consists of plenty of quality programs with greatly extended deadlines (because the "real" deadline was impossible), as well as horrible programs delivered on time. Plenty of examples of each.
      Sure, and furthermore there are plenty of examples of quality software that is delivered on time (partly because the goals were realistic). The original post implied that the expectation of high quality coupled with unrealistic deadlines was a phenomenon specific to academia, and I was merely pointing out that there's even more of this in "the real world."
      Impossible deadlines are, by definition, impossible.
      Can't argue with that, but the term impossible, when applied to deadlines, by convention usually means "possible but unrealistic." Occasionally, the term is used literally.

      Cheers,
      Jeremy

  55. Which University? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I am a bit curious now just for the sake of the info (not that it really matters to my old ass)

    1. Re:Which University? by zbuffered · · Score: 1

      http://www.research.att.com/~bs/
      Texas A&M
      From his web page:
      I (Bjarne Stroustrup) am the designer and original implementor of C++.
      That should be all the pertinent info..

      --
      Synergy is your friend
  56. Is standardization meaningful? by bunratty · · Score: 1
    In terms of standardization, it seems like C# is the odd man out, not Java. C was invented in the 70's and wasn't standardized until 1989. C++ was invented in the 80's and wasn't standardized until 1999. Java was invented in the 90's and we might expect it to be standardized in 2009.

    For all practical purposes, Java is more standardized than C or C++ were when they were "standardized," in the sense that if you get a Java program working with one compiler, it will likely work with lots of other Java compilers. Just try that with C++, even today, four years after it was "standardized."

    To me, the fact that C# is standardized and Java is not means nothing.

    --
    What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
  57. perhaps you have misread... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    .just a thought, but maybe you have misread or misconstrued a lot (not all but a lot) of the anti microsoft and what you see as anti corporate posts on slashdot. What I see more, and I agree with, is that people are anti unethical behavior and criminality, and anti what happens once any entity has a lot of power with little or no check to what they do with that power.

    The obvious example, following the main thread focus, on microsft, where millions of people have noted that they did, in fact, abuse their position, that they got to a dominate position via some pretty questionable means, and that their security models combined with this position have put people in the "pretty much stuck" position of spending a lot of money to be abused on an ongoing basis. yes, I am aware of "don't use their stuff", well, this has been answerd over and over again by noting it's pretty hard to not be affected by "their stuff" whether you use it or not, especially if your clients and cuistomers are still using it. Catch 22 there, so we will get past that sticking point, it's been answered. We all use the net, and all of us are affected when a significant size hole appears and gets exploited, and once a pattern of many years time and of noting exactly where those holes appear and exactly who is responsible for them and how much money they continue to make by this inclusion into the internet world of this swiss cheese approach to expensive software, well.... I mean, really.... the sky IS really blue.

    As to "corporations", recent revelations over the past couple of years have proven there is a lot of outright lying, obfuscation of finances, over hyping to small investors to shill up stocks worth to absurd and reckless levels-fraud in other words, and so on. It's not a true black and white issue, it's more a pick an example (examples again, say microsoft, enron, etc) and point out data and take it from there, normal empirical analysis. the gestalt is, there sure is a lot of criminality going on, and people are beginning to wonder exactly how widespread this is, after example after example comes to light. It's endemic, and probably epidemic, if you would allow a small amount of anthromorphism to be used to describe it..

    Of course this can be called bashing, but to millions of people it's "bashing" based on the reality of an obvious need to bash. Blaming the victims for a crime committed against them is not considered to be an intellectually viable form of expression that is valid, at least not amongst rational civilized people.

    Now for me, a regular old 'murican capitalist, and a proponent of self-reliance and independence, and ALSO a proponent of above board rational and ethical business behavior, there are some corps I think do a good job, and others I can see as being..well.. crooks is the word. Serious crooks, crooks who not only need some fines, but some jail time. Want an example? any of the corporations who sold weapons of mass destruction materials to saddam back in the 80's, when he was obviously using them in warfare. any of those corpos officers, chucked in the pokey. the corporations dissolved. Well now, that would sure be an interesting set of bignames now, wouldn't it? I have more examples, that is "enough" for ocnversational purposes. And yes, I could name names, but anyone with google access can find out as well.

    And to add to the stewpot in the fines and jail list some of the more bribed politicians who behind the scenes and in collusion with other industry heads (and being conflict of industry heads themselves) and semi-faceless regulatory bureaucrats, who have allowed this sort of behavior to become a lot more of the "norm" then what people are comfortable with. Yep, fines and jail. Yep, their businesses dissolved, as being "not in the public interest". Cross the line, do the time. It's like that for joe little guy, should be the same for frederick fatcat.

    I think it's perfectly acceptable to "bash on crooks". I think it's perfectly acceptable to go back

  58. Try Java 922, C# 2.... by SuperKendall · · Score: 5, Informative

    Hey, have a look over at JCP.org.

    There's 922 JSR's there, all public standards underway that anyone (that includes YOU and ME) can comment on. Where can I go to comment on the C# standards underway?

    So, which is the more open standard?

    What a maroon. (Yes, I did spell that right).

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  59. I hate the american government by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    and so do a billion-or-so arabs

  60. gcc front end for C#? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is the gcc team even considering a C# front end? I have mixed feelings about it. I see C# as somewhat redundant. Nonetheless, I imagine that gcc could support a C# front end. Of course, it won't be particularly useful if 99+% of the C# code out there depends on Windows APIs.

  61. Forgot to mention those are patent free... by SuperKendall · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Also, anyone submitting a standard to the JCP relinquishes patents on any parts of the standard.

    Not that Microsoft would do anything funny with Patents and .Net!! No Sir!!

    Wasn't April 1st yesterday?

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  62. ECMA Funding Source? by CrazyLegs · · Score: 1
    Maybe I've been watching too many X-Files re-runs, but I seem to recall that ECMA funding was drying up a few years back. It was MS that came to the rescue with a few bucks to keep ECMA afloat. Lo and behold, MS starts submitting (partial) specs to ECMA to lend an air of respectability to their tech.

    Don't get me wrong, SUN could be trying harder with Java standards, but they have tried in the past (albeit to have their cake and eat it too). In the end, Java is not real proprietary now is it? Lots of folks use it, the API is expansive, and it's stabilized quite a bit compared to the early days before Java 1.1.

    That said, I'll take Java and the involvement from big players like IBM and Oracle vs. the MS-only perspective propped up by ECMA (whose track record is not spectacular).

    --

    CrazyLegs

    "Pork!!" said the Fish, and we all laughed.

  63. And this means...? by EricTheGreen · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Would someone care to post a lucid, fact-supported description of why this matters for any practical purpose?

    The lack of a public standard has seemingly not deterred IBM, et al, from JDK development.

    The presence of a public standard has done nothing to change the perception of .Net being tied to Windows, Mono not withstanding.

    In neither case has the presence/lack of a public certified specification meant diddly to the functionality and utility of either platform.

    This sounds more like fanboy posturing than anything meaningful.

  64. Face Off by gabbarsingh · · Score: 1

    This reminds of the movie Face off, the faces have (appear to have) changed but underneath M$ is a monopoly and Sun would like to have M$'s problems.

    I make my living w/ Java and I absolutely love the language because it lets me do the object oriented stuff. But from a purist point of view Java is really bytecode execution and the object system part of language spec. The package java.awt is optional, really. If I was to create a system today with a customized jvm (own set of bootstrap classes etc), I cannot. Well I can but it won't be java certified.

    Sun has a JCP (Java Community Process) which allows standards process. But since its inception every corporate joker has found their way into standardizing their junk as API e.g. OSS billing system, Equipment provisioning etc - for Pete's sake - why do we need a porky SDK. Not to mention the infuriating decision of ripping of Apache's Log4j as java.util.logging.

    On the other hand, M$ is trying to look like, smell like, feel like, pose like an open system as far as .Net is concerned. But we *know* they will yank out the carpet underneath once .Net is accepted and the threat level has dropped to 'green'.

    Choose wisely.

  65. McNealy? by PetiePooo · · Score: 1
    • "McNealy?" (pause) "McNealy?" (pause) "McNealy?"


    • "Um.. He's sick." (long pause) "My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with a girl who saw Scott pass-out at CeBIT last night. I guess it's pretty serious."
    Sun, wake up and smell the coffee! If you try to maintain absolute control of the Java language, you're going to find a serious user backlash.. The time to act is now!
    1. Re:McNealy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      WTF, go to the JCP.org, join up and shape the future.

  66. That's only 1 score by MORTAR_COMBAT! · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Public Standards: C# 2, Java 0

    Supported platforms: C# 1 (Windows), Java 3 (Windows, Linux, Solaris) (and that's just from Sun).

    Vendors: C# 1 (Microsoft), Java 5 (Sun, IBM, BEA, Oracle, Allaire) (in fairness there are many more Java vendors... those are the 'big ones').

    So the score is already 8 to 4, and what you'd find is a lot more '1s' in the C# column which read 'Microsoft', 'Microsoft', 'Windows', 'Windows', etc.

    And going back to 'public standards': when Microsoft Office publishes a set of DTDs which comprise a very public 'standard'... I'll be shocked. Their 'XML-based openness' in Office 11 is far from that goal.

    --
    MORTAR COMBAT!
    1. Re:That's only 1 score by philipx · · Score: 1
      Supported platforms: C# 1 (Windows), Java 3 (Windows, Linux, Solaris) (and that's just from Sun).

      Actually thanks to the mono project C# is also supported under Linux. And I'm willing to bet it compiles under Solaris as well. Undoubtly Java runs on much more platforms (don't forget mobile devices), but let's be correct on this one.


      Vendors: C# 1 (Microsoft), Java 5 (Sun, IBM, BEA, Oracle, Allaire)[...]

      Well, I guess you win on this one since the open source community and Icaza's boys are not really a "Vendor" ;)

      --
      __________
      Don't belong. Never join. Think for yourself. Peace!
  67. Slashdot .NET by DailyGrind · · Score: 1


    I have been a fan of slashdot for quite some time and I have noticed a HUGE increase of pro M$ information and slant in recent times.

    Whats up with that?

    And all the adds are either M$ or Intel. Is this really becoming the best target market for M$ products?

    --
    You will have to pry my proprietary software $$$ from my cold dead hands!
  68. Cool? Only for short-sighted... by Nicopa · · Score: 1
    This is not cool. Microsoft (and some other companies) uses standards as a stick to hit his competitors. They use standards to enter a market he doesn't own. They did that with Explorer, with MSN, etc. After owning the market they stopped (in both cases) to pay attention to standards. This move can only be viewed as two things:
    • Microsoft's recognition that they don't own the market.
    • Microsoft's disposition of getting rid of Java in a couple of years.
  69. Meaningless standards by ikekrull · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The problem is that the published .NET standards don't actually provide a specification for a standard set of tools to engineer useful software. And if you can do some things with the standardized portions of .NET, they are just as easily, more portably and more efficiently achieved using existing (non .NET) tools.

    I would doubt very much whether it is possible to build .NET apps using MS's tools that do not depend on MS's proprietary implementation and extensions to it's published standards.

    This is just 'Plan B to kill Java' because Plan A, trying to deliberately break Sun's proprietary standards failed so badly. So now they try to give the appearance of being 'ultra-standards-compliant' with a new and wholly redundant platform.

    Having these pointless 'standards' is just a checklist item so MS product managers can construct more plausible falsehoods about .NETs supposed superiority to Java.

    MS shows its commitment to 'standards' with its compatibility-breaking implementation on Kerberos, with its release of specifications for SMB/CIFS that nobody can look at without giving up any rights to work on a free implementation, by providing MFC classes under a license that specifically prohibits their use in engineering a product that competes with MS.

    MS is about as interested in standards-compliance and platform neutrality as George Bush is in Solar energy and world peace.

    --
    I gots ta ding a ding dang my dang a long ling long
  70. Scoring wasnt based on who sells it by g_bit · · Score: 1

    or how many platforms support it. With standards in place, supported platforms and vendors will increase naturally with time.

    And I think that standards for programming languages are taken just a little bit more seriously than standards for an office document.

    C'mon people, C# is kicking Java's collective a$$ and you know it.

    1. Re:Scoring wasnt based on who sells it by MORTAR_COMBAT! · · Score: 1

      With standards in place, supported platforms and vendors will increase naturally with time.

      These C# "standards" have nothing to do with allowing other vendors or supported platforms. There will not be other vendors or supported platforms for C# other than Microsoft Windows.

      Mono (Linux or Windows) is not supported whatsoever by Microsoft. Just because it happens to implement the C# language a bit doesn't change that. Microsoft will never allow it to play in the true .Net space, "standards" or not.

      --
      MORTAR COMBAT!
  71. Standardization will fracture the Java world. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Anyone who has tried to port C and C++ code from one platform to another can attest to what a sham standardization has been for those languages.
    Since Sun controls Java we can be guarenteed there is a large group of very active lawyers that maintain the unity of Java. As soon as Java is an open standard that will not be the case. You will get companies all over adding their own proprietary garbage to in an effort to lock you into their VM. As I recall that is the opposite of everything Java stands for. It will spell the end for Java if Sun ever reliquishes it's legal hold on the language.
    BTW, has no one ever heard of the Java Community Process? It's not a standards organization but it does allow Java advocates to help contribute to the growth of the language.

  72. MS Motivation by mugnyte · · Score: 2, Insightful


    Why wouldn't MS open the C# concepts as a standard? Even the framework libraries are replacable (given a ton of work, like any modern library these days). MS makes it money on server installations, not IDE sales. Build it and they will come. The "Standard" itself isn't worth anything anyway, as C++ programmers know.

    But MS doens't need people to switch to MS OS's just because they want to use C#... They would rather enjoy having the best-of-breed editor and compiler on their platform (and maybe, yes, others!), and let the tendrils of development in C# spider to other OSes.

    For instance, a C# project today on *nix boxes may have to jump through a few hoops (although I think these days MS would throw some support at it) to get bootstrapped, but think about the MONEY:

    MS is posing C#/.NET to be a marketing sell for cross-platform development and integration. "Build with MS today, and tie to everything already in the world...How? Write more and more with .NET assemblies everywhere. We're working on the details right now!"

    So, .NET ends up on a few of your shop boxes, putting smiles on bosess faces. MS then can start to leverage the "thing run better with us" mantra, and paint pretty pictures about porting. Is anyone still surprised MS is a BUSINESS out to make MONEY?

    They are selling based on exactly what Java does as a defacto concept: a single technology with many uses. If bosses see that Java or C# are going to morph anyway, they will make a decision not based on this news. BUT one can only hope.

    mug

  73. You're cool by g_bit · · Score: 1
    I can still recall writing C++ code for an old class using the GNU C++ compiler on Linux...and having people in the rest of the class, using M$ Visual Studio

    Oh, you are the coolest non-conformist I've ever met, can I get your digits?

    No really, the fact that you used a LINUX instead of a MICROSOFT product and then posted it on SLASHDOT, wow that's...I'm speechless.

    Thank you sir for this most under-rated post.

  74. AWESOME! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Another thing for Sun to bitch at microsoft about.
    This should be fun. *DING* - *DING* Round #2. Next please!

  75. Waaaa, waaaa, waaaa! by LibertineR · · Score: 1
    You write your screed as though Microsoft has some obligation to make you feel warm and fuzzy about how they do business.

    What are you, 12?

    You acknowledge that they dont care about you, but you seem to believe that they SHOULD.

    No, fool. Its about your cash. Not you, your cash. If you are not likely to buy from them, then you are shit, and not to be heard from.

    But the point is; this is true for any company that you do business with. They care about customers. Getting them and keeping them.

    Last time I checked, they were doing those things better than anyone else. ITS BUSINESS.

  76. A clarification: C# as *NOT* trully a standard by eyefish · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I think before people reach some conlussions, they should be aware that Microsoft does not have the lightest intention of making their .Net environment a standard or open source for that matter.

    Summiting C# to standard bodies means nothing in the world of .Net, for the very simple reason that in order to write even the most basic usefull C# application you need *libraries*, a virtual machine, and many other propriatary Microsoft hooks. Summiting C# to standard bodies is just a public relations move from Microsoft, so that they can brag later that C# is open-standards based and Java is not, then management makes a decision to go full steam with .Net and a year later realize that they are stuck with all the Microsoft propriatary stuff you need to run C#.

    The analogy to Java would be Sun making the Java Language an open standard, but then keeping the Java API (i.e.: the libraries), and the JVM proprietary.

    I do agree with many though that Java should be not just a standard, but even open source. However when it comes to Virtual Machines it is *extremelly* important to have some central authority to authorize changes, since one of the premises of a VM is that you can run code anywhere, and if you let a million programmers create their own VMs, all of a sudden code stops running everywhere, defeating the advantages of a VM. This is why I don't mind SUN controlling a bit the final say on Java development, and experience tells me that the Java Community Process is a very reasonable alternative to open standards and open source. In the end, Java is a deFacto standard anyways when it comes to enterprise business applications, so Sun might as well try hard to submit it to ISO at least. But remember, all Sun is trying to do is avoiding a fragmentation of the Java market, which I think it's A Good Thing.

    1. Re:A clarification: C# as *NOT* trully a standard by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The underlying runtime, and a subset of the libraries are part of the standard.

  77. MOD THIS MAN UP. by LibertineR · · Score: 1

    Someone finally gets it.

  78. Re: nope by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wrox parent company went under and dragged wrox press with it. Wrox press was apparently profitable.

  79. ISO is for corporations not the public! by Mammy-Nun · · Score: 2, Interesting
    ISO serves corporations, not the public. Check it out:

    http://www.iso.org/iso/en/faqs/faq-general.html#1. 10

    1.10 Can anyone join ISO?

    Not as individuals or as enterprises - although both have a range of opportunities for taking part in ISO's work, or in contributing to the development of standards through the ISO member in their country. Membership of ISO is open to national standards institutes or similar organizations most representative of standardization in their country (one member in each country). Full members each have one vote, whatever the size or strength of the economy of the country concerned. This means that they can all make their voices heard in the development of standards which are important to their country's industry. ISO also has two categories of membership for countries with fewer resources. Although such members do not have a vote, they can remain up to date on standardization developments. Lists of the three categories of ISO members are available on ISO Online.

    Do you really thing MS would risk having the standard at the whim of the non-strategically-aligned?

    1. Re:ISO is for corporations not the public! by mlk · · Score: 1

      [-1: pro-java comment comming]
      JCP is for inderviduals, go join!

      --
      Wow, I should not post when knackered.
  80. Really? by jkauzlar · · Score: 1
    Really? That is surprising. Not only that MS did that, but that it wasn't publicized more (of course, unless the news is on Slashdot or a Java site, I wouldn't hear about it anyway...) But the question remains... will CLR and C# code be entangled so much with Windows-only code that it won't be useful anywhere else?

    Obviously, I wouldn't expect MS to go to too much trouble to make their code portable, but I think the main advantage of having an ISO standard is that companies will not feel tied down to a specific vendor and that the man-hours invested in development would not be wasted if they switched to another server OS.

    I think that is the real goal here, to have the freedom to layer your system with software from a variety of vendors.

  81. Who cares if it runs on non-Windows OSes? by g_bit · · Score: 1

    Not too many people I'd guess. At least, not enough people for it to matter.

  82. Fluff, pure fluff by jkabbe · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Why does certification of a particular version matter? Sure, Microsoft can get C# certified by some standards body. Who cares? What really is important is who controls the version after that. AFAIK Microsoft has not created a community body involving other companies to set the direction for C# as Sun has with Java.

    And as we all know, C# is only a fraction of what is necessary to run .NET. Can anyone tell me if Microsoft has submitted their entire shared library to standards bodies or is it just the C# language and underlying virtual machine? If Microsoft is still keeping the libraries proprietary then it will be even more of a red herring.

  83. Reply posts and lack of knowledge by siphoncolder · · Score: 1
    I'm rather surprised by this knowledgeable crowd - everyone started jumping on the "How can .NET be standards compliant, it exposes MS proprietary API's" bandwagon.

    Well, if you jumped on that bandwagon, you're right, but you all get a -1: Offtopic for it. This story post is about C# getting standards certification - not the .NET environment. C# is a language in & of itself, and it's the language that was used in the beginning to create .NET (so that chicken & egg story is cleared up for y'all, too).

    Again, it's not .NET that's getting certification here - it's just C#, the language.

    --
    i'm amazed that i survived - an airbag saved my life.
  84. Great! Just look at "javascript" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Javascript is already ECMA-standardized, so any problem experienced when trying to write cross browser/platform scripts are clearly imaginary.

    So there. Standards solve all problems.

    1. Re:Great! Just look at "javascript" by mlk · · Score: 1

      The standard EMCA libs. don't include DOM support, which is where MSIE and Netscape 4 screw you, as the W3C DOM standard libs were not out, so both just made it up as they went along.
      Now; MSIE 6, Moz and KHTML all support the w3c DOM quite nicely.

      --
      Wow, I should not post when knackered.
  85. Cabletron as an example by Degrees · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Cabletron pretty much invented VLANs, but used a central server and a bunch of switch cpu horsepower to get the job done. SecureFast was a beautiful thing.

    Cisco knew their gear didn't have the horsepower to compete. So when it came time for the standards body to declare the 802.1q standard - guess which company threw everything into winning the battle?

    And of course, the Cisco marketing department promptly started making noise about Cabletron not having a "standards based" VLAN technology.

    We lost a lot of fine-grained control when we switched from SecureFast to 802.1q.

    What we need now is the control SecureFast gave us, with 802.1q as the transport technology. Then we would beat 'em on both fronts.

    --
    "The most sensible request of government we make is not, "Do something!" But "Quit it!"
  86. Pretty free, and very cool by biehl · · Score: 1
  87. Screw em both.. by lspd · · Score: 1

    I don't trust either Sun or Microsoft to refrain from jerking me around for a few $$$, standards or not.
    Give me a FAST Parrot VM with GTK for Lin/Win/Mac and I'll never touch C++ again.

  88. More importantly, what happens if sun kills JDK? by AxelTorvalds · · Score: 1
    Java isn't open. Which isn't really that bad, I'd feel better of ISO, ANSI or ECMA had a draft Java spec but Sun hasn't screwed us yet.

    What happens if they start charging for the JDK? Or just stop developing it? I know there are projects like Kaffe and GCJ and IBM's JDK but it's just a derivative of Sun's. Not to be alarmist but Sun's not positioned well right now and should they replace the CEO or something rash like that (how many losses to you take before bringing in new blood?) The new guy will look at what Sun does, look at the strengths, look at the weaknesses, look at the costs, and I don't see how free JDK wins, I don't see how java wins at all

  89. Standardisation and Iso by sepluv · · Score: 1

    IMO standardisation is a very good thing (except maybe the Iso way because they do not make their standards freely-available - they cost money (although you can often get pirated copies (of last-call drafts on the Web))). BTW, is the word, "Iso", supposed to be uppercase like in the post. I wondered. I don't know. Maybe it is a bit like "USENET".

    --
    Joe Llywelyn Griffith Blakesley
    [This post is in the public domain (copyright-free) unless otherwise stated]
    1. Re:Standardisation and Iso by mlk · · Score: 1

      > uppercase
      yes, it is an acronym. "Internation Standard Org." I think.

      --
      Wow, I should not post when knackered.
    2. Re:Standardisation and Iso by sepluv · · Score: 1
      Iso is Greek for equal. The Iso are called, in full, "The International Organisation for Standardi{s/z}ation" (which would be IOS if they were to abbreviate it) in English, and a variety of other names in other languages (which are all shortned to Iso).

      Some people assume it must be "International Standards Organi{s/z}ation" when they see "Iso".

      Maybe "Iso" was a bad word to choose or maybe it should always be lower case or title case to avoid confusion.

      --
      Joe Llywelyn Griffith Blakesley
      [This post is in the public domain (copyright-free) unless otherwise stated]
  90. Can you say "naive"??? by nmg196 · · Score: 1
    Platforms for C#: 0


    If that's not screaming for a troll/flaimbait then I don't know what is....

    ALL recent versions of Windows support C#!

    Even Linux supports C# though the mono project.

    Windows XP even comes with the runtime pre-installed! If there weren't any platforms for it, nobody would be developing for it, but as it happens, hundreds of thousands of software developers are currently using .NET (language doesn't matter with .NET - it's the framework that counts).

    At my university (graduated 1999)
    Classes tought with Java: 1
    Classes tought with C/Prolog/Lisp/Perl/SML: 10

    my point: since when did what you were taught at uni make any difference to what you use at your job?! Uni's use academic languages for teaching about languages, and pascal/c/c++ for teaching about software development. Their choice for the later is academic (if you'll excuse the pun). Hell - if you were taught Java and can't pick up C#, you've got to be the thickest software developer I've ever come across. They're almost identical - C# is just a neater version of Java with the annoyances polished out. Oh and it's a standard.

    Nick...
    1. Re:Can you say "naive"??? by nmg196 · · Score: 1

      PS. spelling of "tought" copied so even *you* can understand.

      It is of course, "taught".

  91. MS cares if it doesn't run on non-Windows OS's by tjwhaynes · · Score: 1

    Not too many people I'd guess. At least, not enough people for it to matter.

    Actually, it may prove to be a huge achillies heel to not have coverage of non-Windows platforms. I remember when Java first appeared and a lot of people took a look at it and thought it would make a neat way to have little animations embedded in their browsers.

    Today, the usage of Java couldn't be further from that early view. Java is making huge strides in the data centre, as servlets and similar rapid development environments. So missing out on all the other servers in the data centre could stop C# getting the ground that Java now holds.

    Now that leaves MS in a sticky spot. They may not achieve market dominance without ports of C# to other platforms (and all the associated libraries) but if they do, they lose the customer lock-in that they normally rely on.

    Tricky, tricky.

    Cheers,

    Toby Haynes

    --
    Anything I post is strictly my own thoughts and doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the opinions of IBM.
    1. Re:MS cares if it doesn't run on non-Windows OS's by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, it may prove to be a huge achillies heel to not have coverage of non-Windows platforms.

      Given the attitude many have towards MS (both products and practices), and the fact that many people and businesses are discovering software free of restrictions and licensing, adding .NET support to free OS's may prove to be their downfall as they would give users a clear path to begin migrating to other software.

  92. Why do you like C#? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is not meant as a criticism, I'm just curious.
    I started out as a C then C++ programmer, did a little over a year of Java, a couple of years ago, then went back to C++ and have been using C# for almost a year, (rather foolishly I do what my employer wants).
    I liked the feeling of power you get with C/C++ but I was really impressed by the ease with which my OO designs translated into Java code. It also comes with some great APIs.
    Whilst C# is not horrendous it has introduced some noddy VB-isms like the 'for each' construct and properties and [attributes] and (IMO) that stupid event driven model for ASP.NET (which frequently generates hideous HTML worthy of a third rate web developer - still an improvement over the original ASP though) and... other things.
    Just curious to know why it you prefer it.
    TIA.

  93. Linux and POSIX by yerricde · · Score: 2, Informative

    Meanwhile, Linux isn't "officially" UNIX or even POSIX-certified

    The Unifix Linux distribution is certified as POSIX.1 conforming.

    --
    Will I retire or break 10K?
  94. Like a dictionary by mattypants · · Score: 1

    Like a dictionary to a spoken language, a standards process can only stagnate a programming language. Its the use of either kind of language that matters - Java is used, C# is not (or is that .not?). In any case, Java programmers quietly know that the Sun JVM is not their only option and happily code away. C# programmers wonder which way Microsoft will shaft them next.

  95. The JCP and Java by ievans · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I work for Sun, and while I won't pretend to speak for them, I work most of the time on the various J2EE JSRs, so I sort of understand how the whole process works, and therefore understand the rationale for why Java isn't an ECMA or ISO standard.

    The Java Community Process (http://www.jcp.org) is an independent organization that sets the standards for Java. Anyone can join the JCP, although most members are companies. The Java language, the different distributions of Java (J2SE, J2EE, J2ME), and technologies that are built on Java use Java Specification Requests (JSRs). Various members (the expert group) collaborate on the JSR to define the technology, and work on a reference implementation. For example, Tomcat is the reference implementation of the JSP and Java servlet APIs. This is one major difference between ECMA/ISO and the JCP: the requirement of a reference implementation.

    I think the idea behind the JCP was to be able to modify the language and the APIs more quickly than other standards bodies, and ensure that there are useful implementations of the standards that go hand in hand with the standard.

    In the case of Apache, there have been some modifications to the JCP to allow open-source implementations of JSRs, and to make the compatibility tests available for non-profits. JBoss and Sun have locked horns because, in Sun's view, JBoss is not a non-profit, and are using the J2EE JSRs to make money without licensing the J2EE brand, as BEA, IBM, Oracle, Borland, and others have done. Because Apache is in fact a non-profit organization, Sun's been much more willing to work with them.

    Sun produces most of the JSRs, but not overwhelmingly so (around 60% if I remember correctly). Your average open-source hacker will find it harder to contribute to a JSR compared to, say, Gnome or KDE. Unlike .NET, though, it is possible to get involed in the development of Java and J2EE, either directly as an individual member of the JCP, or indirectly by providing comments during the public reviews of JSRs.

    There are many people at Sun that would like the public more involved in developing Java, and others who would not.

    Keep in mind that this is my impression of Sun's rationale, and I do not speak for Sun on any level.

  96. Microsoft isn't following its own ECMA C# standard by matsh · · Score: 1

    These two functions exists in Microsofts C# libraries, but are not part of the ECMA C# standard documentation:

    1. String.Format(String s)
    2. Convert.IsDBNull()

    Now, it is a matter of interpretation if you are allowed to freely add functions to standardized classes, but an unsuspecting C# developer is likely to use these functions, since they exist, and will have migration problems if he tries to move his code off to another code base, such as Mono.

    Sun doesn't do these things with its library, because compatibility is important to them, not just lip service.

  97. Exactly by ink · · Score: 1

    Just as POSIX was a marketing tool; so is the EMCA/ISO rubber-stamp of their C# token parser.

    --
    The wheel is turning, but the hamster is dead.
  98. How about a Market Cap score by FreshFunk510 · · Score: 1

    As of today (facetiously):

    C# (Microsoft) $275.2 Billion
    Java (SUN + IBM + ORCL) $2.9B + $140B + $60B = $202.9 Billion

    I mean cmon! There are way too many factors, even beyond the ones you supplied, to consider. Oh so you want to talk about the number of different support platforms? How about the sheer number of people who use windows versus linux+solaris? You want to talk about vendors? What about vendor support? What about the monetary value of the cumulative supporting vendors? Cmon.

    --


    "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
  99. Patented != not available royalty-free by yerricde · · Score: 1

    but really how can you call something standard if it's patented?

    Licenses for essential patents on all ECMA and ISO standards must be available under so-called "reasonable and non-discriminatory" terms, which may or may not involve a royalty. Both common forms of JPEG still image compression (DCT-based JPEG and wavelet-based JPEG2000) are patented, but holders of essential patents have agreed to license the patents under royalty-free terms. According to a few other comments in this thread, it appears Microsoft has agreed to license ECMA C# royalty-free as well, but I could be wrong.

    --
    Will I retire or break 10K?
    1. Re:Patented != not available royalty-free by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So where's your copy of a signed license agreement from Sun and Microsoft? If you do not have a signed document stating you may use the patent royalty free, then either one of them at a later date can tell you to pay up. Even then, the company can violate the license agreement just like Microsoft violated a license agreement between it and Sun. The difference between you and Sun is that you won't have enough money to pay for the legal bills. Use of patented technology without a signed license agreement = You're screwed.

  100. Not true, the JCP is chaired by many companies... by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    Java even has the bureaucratic standard - the JCP is chaired by a group of people from various companies, that have paid to be a part of things. The JCP is not controlled by Sun, and is where Java standards of all kinds (language to libraries) are debated by anyone that cares to take part.

    That's what gets me about the main story. Anyone who cares to examine the JCP at all, finds a thriving site with standards for all sorts of things - distributed caching, language level changes (generics), basically stuff at all levels from embedded devices to enterprise standards. The JCP is practically a whole ECMA group all by itself!

    I agree with you generally though - your priorities are spot-on. If public documents exist and all the rest follows as you say, then it doesn't matter who has approved the document as long as everyone follows it.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  101. EULA, and laches by yerricde · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So where's your copy of a signed license agreement from Sun and Microsoft?

    Open the installer to see it. And if EULAs aren't binding, the big proprietary software publishers are screwed in other ways.

    If you do not have a signed document stating you may use the patent royalty free, then either one of them at a later date can tell you to pay up.

    Not always. If a patent holder delays an infringement lawsuit by over six years or otherwise harm me by delaying legal action, the doctrine of laches states that the patent holder may not be able to recover damages for infringements that occurred prior to filing the lawsuit.

    --
    Will I retire or break 10K?
  102. Sun doesn't have control right now. by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    The Java language and VM standards are controlled by the Java Community Process, a standards body that is chaired by people from a lot of different companies - including Sun.

    However, Sun does not have control. I offer Generics support as an example, ironically enough - Sun wanted them in 1.4 (and they were done enough with the issues to have done so), but the JCP needed more time to work out issues so Generics are in 1.5 instead.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  103. Why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Has Visual Basic been approved by any standards org? Why does a language have to be a approved to be used?

  104. Let's make the standard usable by dup_account · · Score: 1

    If it's truely a standard, not controlled on my MS, let's get in there are start ripping out the windows only / windows preferable parts of it and replace them with cross platform... They way, we get a standard that everyone change use.

    Anyone want to wager on the chances of non MS approved changes getting in?

  105. Coulda fooled me (and I'm a Cornell CS student) by agilen · · Score: 1

    At Cornell they don't use C#. I think there is a new class about C#, but in every real CS class that includes programming, its either Java, or a language more suited to the subject of that class.

    The core "programming" classes, 100 and 211/2 are in Java. 312, functional programming, when I took it was SML, but I'm not sure if it still is...regardless there is no MS functional language. Operating systems was in C, networking was in C and Java, security was in Java (our professor from that class was even a MS consultant...fancy that), and most other courses that involve programming have been in Java.

    In fact, when I started at Cornell, they said they teach in Java...i was like ugh, oh no, where did my c++ go? But now I realize...Java is great as a teaching languge. You can develop on any platform, which is key when some labs are windows, some are BSD, some are Solaris, and your home computer is Linux. Its also easy to build on....say in a data structures course they make you implement a hash table. You can do that in Java, but then in some later class when you need to use a hashtable, Java has it built in so you don't have to reinvent the wheel.

    There is very good reason for Cornell to be using Java, and I don't think that they are willing to let Microsoft buy away their flexibility.

  106. Sun is in Denial by Dolemite_the_Wiz · · Score: 1

    They seem to be putting off Java Source Code that has esentially been 'scotch taped' over the years for Win32 resulting in the Molasses form everyone sees now a days.

    My money sez that they don't want to re-write their source code from the ground up like they should have done years (5+) ago.

    --
    Save the World! Use a Quote!
  107. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  108. Absolutely! by GCP · · Score: 2, Interesting

    On the positive side, there is this kick-ass project called Mono that implements it, and runs on a variety of other systems as well.

    Absolutely! And I think that way too many people dismiss the advantages of C#, the language, because of its prominent position in a Microsoft initiative.

    I'm a big fan of Java, but after having used it for a lot of projects, I find that I'm VERY pleased by the extras offered by C#, the language, and the basic CLI extras that are covered by the upcoming ISO standard.

    I do NOT require a perfect clone of .Net. Go for it, Miguel! Get as close as you can, but if MS blocks you then let's have a Mono Community Process and come up with alternatives that are even better. For a while, being able to run the exact same app on both Windows and Linux might be useful, but my first priority is a great dev platform for Linux, not a way to run Windows apps. Over time, that first priority will get even stronger, and I'll get more interested in other languages such as a MonoScheme and less interested in Windows compatibility.

    Go Mono!

    --
    "Those who have never entered upon scientific pursuits know not a tithe of the poetry by which they are surrounded."
  109. IBM Takeover by RichiP · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I, for one, wish that IBM would take over the reigns of Java. I love Java and have been using it for years (alongside C, Perl, PHP, etc.), but I can't seem to like a single thing about Sun. They may have top quality hardware, but, even then, I still don't want them and their hardware.

    IBM, OTOH, has done well by the community and I would vote for them if a new steward for Java was ever sought.

  110. Lets agree that opinions differ by g_bit · · Score: 1
    Mono (Linux or Windows) is not supported whatsoever by Microsoft

    No, it's supported by Ximian, just as Sun does not support IBM's Java stuff.

    The rest of what you said is your opinion, your speculation.

    1. Re:Lets agree that opinions differ by MORTAR_COMBAT! · · Score: 1

      The rest of what you said is your opinion, your speculation.

      No, I've sat in presentations and discussions with Microsoft engineers who came to our development site to tell us about .Net. I asked them point blank about Mono, Linux, etc, etc.

      --
      MORTAR COMBAT!
    2. Re:Lets agree that opinions differ by g_bit · · Score: 1
      These C# "standards" have nothing to do with allowing other vendors or supported platforms. There will not be other vendors or supported platforms for C# other than Microsoft Windows.

      MICROSOFT may not support them but OTHER COMPANIES WILL. There is nothing that stops another company (XIMIAN) from supporting the C# LANGUAGE. I am not talking about MICROSOFT'S SUPPORT. When something is STANDARDIZED, it makes it easier for other companies to support it.

      Microsoft will never allow it to play in the true .Net space, "standards" or not.

      .NET is a STANDARD, it's not a PRODUCT, therefore Microsoft has no control over the "true .Net space" (whatever that means). Besides, the article is about how C# was standardized, not .NET there is a difference. You can use C# without using .NET and OTHER COMPANIES will support it.

  111. You could be right by g_bit · · Score: 1
    In fact, I know that you're right about the growth of Java from the browser to server-land, I've seen it.

    However, one can't dismiss that Microsoft's NT has been making huge strides into the server market as well. This article provided a keen insight into a possible evolutionary path of the current situation. It has good news for Linux but it also predicts Windows holding 51% of the server market (other stories when googling ("data center" server "operating system" research windows linux unix solaris)). It's really anybody's guess at this point.

    Regardless, I think that a lot of people are mis-informed about the porting of C# over to other platforms. The Mono compiler can compile any code in the C# syntax, but the *Standard Libraries* are where the battle is. Who knows, maybe Microsoft will come out with a set of libs that run on *nix and then charge for use of them.

    Personally, I am a developer of desktop products mainly, so I don't really have a good view of whats happening in the server market. You've got to root for the home team though ;)

    Thanks for a thoughtful reply, sorry if my post seemed trollish (it was :)

  112. There I go again by g_bit · · Score: 1
    I have such a literal mind, really. I guess that your use of "rhetorical flair" in the first post made me think that you really felt trapped somehow by VB. I see what you mean though, regarding C shops not hiring you *and* that there's no challenge to using VB.

    However, I'd venture to say that there are C shops out there who will still hire you (if you want to work in a *nix shop that may be different, it sounds like you've been doing that nasty Windows stuff ;) You can always do like I did to get my first dev gigs: Lie.

    Maybe Joel will hire you :) Here's a link to his site with an extremely insightful article on this subject.

    You're right though, the nerds on high think that I'm a doofus because I like using VB, but the reason I like it is because I can get things done quickly when people need them.

  113. .Net is owned by Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The owner of .Not says it all if .Not is open source or not.

    If you think .Not is open source pigs also fly.

    By the way IE is part of windoze OS which is the most secure OS in the world ....("chuckles now!!")

  114. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  115. Why is IE propietory ? so .Not is propietory too. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Question to all the M$ trolls why is IE propietory.

    Why is MS Word doc propietory ?????

    So now .Not is propietory

  116. Y'all need to recognize by Zebra_X · · Score: 2, Interesting

    That .NET is a platform to make you, the developer more productive.

    I've not done a lot of desktop application development - so I can't really speak for the desktop crowd. I'd venture to say that it's not quite where it should be.

    The web however, is something different. ASP.NET is fast - easy - and extremely flexible and provided your server doesn't crash :-) extremely stable. Many of the most important aspects of basic application development are already done for you such as authentication and authorization, a decent crypto api and others. It comes with a standard set of "controls" for web forms that are flexible and reliable. Visual Studio supports the .NET Framework quite nicely and makes developing under ASP.NET quite pleasant (except for the html reformatting, quite annoying). All in all it's a good package. MS has done a great job documenting and exposing how .NET works, not from a code level BECAUSE WE DON'T NEED TO KNOW ABOUT IT but from an API/Method level. Generally speaking there is documentation on most of the common "problems" when learning .NET.
    The most compelling aspect of .NET is the fact that we can RELY on MS to maintain control of the .NET framework and classes. Unlike our friend Sun and Java which has become a mess of separate packages and little documented dependencies that are unreliable, prone to null pointer exceptions, and hidden caveats in packages that are necessary to do basic development work (XSL Parsers come to mind) .NET is a welcome relief to the uncontrolled mess that Sun now proudly hails as Java. .NET has unquestionably borrowed from every language design pattern that has appeared on the face of the earth since the chinese invented the abacus. But I don't care, becuase I can get my work done, and when I wake up in the morning I'm not real worried that my applications have chewed their tails off while I slept peacefully.

  117. Retards on both sides by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    so I'm quite surprized to see you swagger in here, linguistic disabilities in full evidence

    Ho ho ho. Hello, Mr Pot? This is the kettle, and I have some bad news for you...

    On one hand, a guy who can't spell, and on the other, a guy who capitalises the wrong letters in his surname, and we're supposed to think either of you are in any qualified to comment on jack shit?

    How amusing. Two children arguing over search engine terms is all you come off as.

    1. Re:Retards on both sides by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Uh...Are you surprized that you're such an idiot? We surely aren't.

    2. Re:Retards on both sides by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Read your own link. Although you searched for 'surprize', you won't find that spelling anywhere in the definitions provided. The correct spelling is surprise, as it always has been.

      Thank you for going out of your way to prove my point for me though.

    3. Re:Retards on both sides by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey dildo: Dictionary.com gives misspelling alert if a word is misspelled. Suprize, you see, is a 'legal' variant of surprise. Indeed outside of the US suprize is the most common method of spelling it. Of course, who the hell are the English to dictate how English is spelled?

  118. The D Programming Language by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    is already way ahead of C# and Java, it even has templates! See comparison.

  119. j00 R 0wn5d by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ever heard of Mono?

    Ever hear of patents? M$ has patented the entire Framework API. This renders the Open C# closed. Try to imagine programming in C if you had patent restrictions in stdio.h, stdlib.h.

    Muhahahah, M$ 0wnz ur bitch a55

  120. Standards w/o Validation Suites? by Bob+Munck · · Score: 1
    I don't entirely understand what "standard" means in these cases. When we made Ada 82 an ECMA and ISO standard, lo these many years ago, we created a massive validation suite of many thousands of test programs and their expected results. Validating a single version of a compiler on a single host and a single target took hundreds of man-hours to run the tests, analyze the results, and argue about their validity. A validated Ada compiler was a big deal, you knew for certain that it would compile and run your program exactly the same way that other validated compilers would. (Validation included the run-time environment targetted by the compiler.)

    I don't believe that these new languages, things like C++ and C#, have anything like that; I haven't found any mention of validation suites or even the concept of a validated compiler. Apparently the vendor just claims to be conformant, maybe runs a few dozen tests. Why would anyone waste their time coding to a "standard" like that, with no reason to believe that their code would work on any target other than the one they developed it on?

    Sure, developing the Ada Validation Suite was a big deal, took many man-decades of effort by some very smart people. But the result was that it saved many times as much work by all the grunt programmers who used the language. It must be incredibly frustrating to code in C# and C++, let alone a completely unstandardized language like Java.

  121. hm.. by Dodecha · · Score: 1

    Fuck M$ and its languages..

    Gcc is all i ever need

  122. C# Not a 'C++ subset' by Burb · · Score: 1
    It's a cut-down version of C++ with native support for properties and delegation.

    I respectfully suggest this is not the case. There's lots of stuff in the C# language which isn't in C++. Garbage collection, for one. As you point out, properties and delegation also exist in C#. And there are things like metadata and reflection that go beyond C++ RTTI in terms of consistency and easy of use.

    The whole point of Java and .NET aren't the C# and Java languages, but the huge class libraries. Until those are standardized, ISO C# doesn't mean much.

    Now this I do agree with.

    --

    1. Re:C# Not a 'C++ subset' by be-fan · · Score: 1

      C++ has garbage collection, but that's not the "C++" way of doing things. Reference counted smart pointers, on the other hand, are the officially blessed method. Delegation can quite easily be implemented at the library level. Properties are a significant missing feature, though. As for reflection -- it's questionable whether this is actually a language-level feature. Given appropriate compiler support, reflection can be supported in C++ with no changes to the language itself. Even in Java, reflection is more a library-level feature that uses information that the JVM happens to keep around.

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
  123. Score by HighFlyer · · Score: 1

    Enterprise ready applications: C# 0, Java 1000+

    --

    -- Truth suffers from too much analysis.
  124. Yeah, lets also blame Kernigan & Ritchie. by jotaeleemeese · · Score: 1

    Bastards, why did they not provide something like Visual C[tm]?

    They clealrly fscked big team for not providing a pointy-clicky environment for their lame language.

    Jeez, what were they thinking?

    --
    IANAL but write like a drunk one.
  125. Genius! You got Sun's tactics for the future! by jotaeleemeese · · Score: 1

    New Sun's slogan: "we are the dots in Microsot's i". Followed by "we love Microsft, we use it everyday".

    Brilliant marketing insight that of yours.

    --
    IANAL but write like a drunk one.
  126. .NET on other platforms by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ever heard of Microsoft Shared Source CLI (Rotor), Mono, or DotGNU Portable.NET?

    Rotor runs on Windows 2000/XP, FreeBSD, and Max OS X. People even have ported it to Linux.

    Mono runs on Windows, Linux/x86, Linux/PPC, Linux/s390 mainframe, Linux/StrongArm, FreeBSD, and is being ported to others, such as, Mac OS X, Linux/Sparc, ...

  127. Patents by pointwood · · Score: 1

    I don't know about Sun and Java, but I what I *do* know is that Microsoft have several software patents related to .Net. A few quotes (taken from http://swpat.ffii.org/players/microsoft/index.en.h tml):

    Responding to questions about the opening-up of the .NET framework, Ballmer announced that there would certainly be a "Common Language Runtime Implementation" for Unix, but then explained that this development would be limited to a subset, which was "intended only for academic use". Ballmer rejected speculations about support for free .NET implementationens such as Mono: "We have invested so many millions in .NET, we have so many patents on .NET, which we want to cultivate."

    =====

    Asked by CollabNet CTO Brian Behlendorf whether Microsoft will enforce its patents against open source projects, Mundie replied, "Yes, absolutely." An audience member pointed out that many open source projects aren't funded and so can't afford legal representation to rival Microsoft's. "Oh well," said Mundie. "Get your money, and let's go to court."

    Go ahead and start using Mono for your new project...

  128. GNU Classpath by oniony · · Score: 1

    The GNU Classpath project is completely free Java.

    --

    Powered by onion juice.

  129. The language is Irrelevent by Mr.+McD · · Score: 1

    So C# is a standard now. I say BIG DEAL! For starters, the .NET Framework is not a "standard" and is controlled completely by MS. This is further complicated by the fact that .NET allows developers to write in any .NET compatible language ( which is you use laguages like VB and Perl is .NET it's structure eerily become like that of C# or Java). Now I know that the CLI has also been standarized as well. But without the underlying Framework, who really cares? I can write my code in standard ISO, ECMA C# all I want on Windows and .NET, but this does NOT mean that my code will compile on say Mono, or Portable.NET.

    Sure, the JCP is controlled by Sun. Howevers, the JCP also sets the rules for what API's compose the Java framework, not just the Java language. Sun also provides compatiblity testing for 3rd party implementations so that can be deemed Java compatible, if they choose. With that said, Mono can be 100% ISO and ECMA standards compliant, but they will never be 100% .NET compatible.

  130. No, it is free, but not open ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    At least not to the kind of "open" as OSI like it to define.

    Because the fact is that you can get the whole sources from the JVM ! You can do whatever you want with them, but redistribute a modification of the VM without passing the compatibility kit (TCK)!

    This shouds strange to linux fans but this was made for one bare reason : prevent incompatibility issues.

    Assuming that in order to put "Java" compatible your VM pass the TCK is one of the thing that prevent JAva to be considered as open.

    Usual open licenses, can not limit modified code from beeing redistributed with the same name, whatever modification has bee done !

    I can redistribute a Apache 2.0-memyself, that use XML insead of the genuine .conf files ! This would imply that every configuration tools digging in the .conf files will no more compatible :(

    Java Community Source license, mainly try to getting righ of this issue that is a "must have" for an enterprise solution.

    The question is, could there be solution for both Sun and OSI to find an common opensource way ? By keeping Java unite but accept some more open process definition for instance ...

    Anyway, C# can be whatever defined, the whole dotNet platform is not and will never be under a standard ! MS, keep and will keep the entire control over his platform ;)

    If that not what they plan to do, why will have they run away from Java as soon as they noticed they could not control it "at their good-will" (remember the native windows specific calls)?

    -SLK

  131. Just two more standards by dingd0ng · · Score: 1

    for Microsoft to not adhere to in the future, f**king anyone dumb enough to assume that they would .

    --
    Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!
  132. define "standard" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I mean, what is "standard" anyways?

    Certainly not Java!

    harhar