Does an Open Java Really Matter?

snydeq writes "Fatal Exception's Neil McAllister questions the relevance of the recent opening of Java given the wealth of options open source developers enjoy today. Sure, as the first full-blooded Java implementation available under a 100 percent Free Software license, RedHat's IcedTea pushes aside open source objections to developing in Java. Yet, McAllister asks, if Java really were released today, brand-new, would it be a tool you'd choose? 'The problem, as I see it, is twofold,' he writes. 'First, as the Java platform has matured, it has become incredibly complex. Today it's possible to do anything with Java, but no one developer can do everything — there simply aren't enough hours in the day to learn it all. Second, and most important, even as Java has stretched outward to embrace more concepts and technologies — adding APIs and language features as it goes — newer, more lightweight tools have appeared that do most of what Java aims to do. And they often do it better.'" Since Java itself never mattered except to sell books, I still don't see why opening it matters.

Comments

Programmers opinions on the language?

[jacks smirking reven]

I am not a programmer myself, but i know a bunch, and just about every one I know or have talked languages with systematically abhor Java (the words slow and bloated come up often) and most apps written in Java I have used have felt half-hearted. Other then the cross-platform capability are there real advantages to it?

An analogy

[BlueZombie]

Java is to .Net as USSR was to USA Clunky, slow, and inefficient But providing enough threat to keep high tech development rolling along

Re:Java never mattered

[John Jamieson]

Ya, I realize that there are valid reasons for still using perl (like "I know it well because I have used it for years"), but at least we should be a bit embarrassed when we do.

I rarely script, but the little I have done with Python makes me think I should try HARDER to forget I ever learned perl.

Re:(Troll) I hate java, why does /. love it?

[geekoid]

"ava isn't really far off the speed of C++"

That is only true if you compile it, effectively loosing all the other benefits you claim.
"(don't tell anyone - but I quite like playing Tetris on my phone, thanks Java)."
so? I can play C# games on my phone, talk about logical fallacies, sheesh.

You go right ahead and sit there thinking that without Java there wouldn't be any applications on your phone.

Trouble shooting any large Java application is a nightmare.