That's an incredibly lame cop-out and I can't belive you thought about it seriously before you posted. I mean, you could have said that about just about any technology at any time in history.
Hunting and gathering? Works great! Why change?
Serfdom? It works dandy - I just farm this here land and give taxes to his Lordship and everythings hunky-dory.
Eh? Electricity? Why bother - these gas lamps and candles work just fine.
Bah. Binary multiplatform is where stuff gets really COOL. I mean, write once, compile anywhere is nifty, but it doesn't even start to approach how cool binary multiplatform is.
And, really, how meaningful is the fact that there's a compiler for everything? I mean, geez, that makes FORTRAN and Pascal and just about every other mainstream language I can think of is multiplatform.
"Unfortunately, Java isn't really multiplatform, either, unlike what Sun's marketing team would have you believe. Java is multiplatform in the same way that my Super Nintendo ROM is: I can play it on windows, linux, solaris, etc. I need an emulator, of course. Similarly, I need a "Java Virtual Machine" to run my Java bytecode: it's really just an emulator for a platform that doesn't exist. And if the emulator isn't ported to your favorite platform, well, tough. "
Um. DUH. How would you make a language that's multiplatform without an interpreter or a compiler for every platform you wanted to run it on?!? If you say java isn't multiplatform, then nothing is, it seems to me.
Freenet has this sort of thing built in. The less objects are accessed, the more nodes they drop off of. Eventually, if no one is interested in it, the file drops off Freenet, never to be seen again, much like the Passenger Pigeon or the other extinct thing that I can't think of right now.
I installed SuSE 6.0 some time ago and all went well except the DHCP kept dropping me. So I called the 1-800 number & talked to a very nice guy (Hi Norm!) who couldn't quite solve my problem. He reported that no one else ever seemed to have a problem with it, and suggested that maybe my ISP had weirdo settings on their server. While there was no solution for me (i figured it out later on me own), I still thought SuSE support was pretty good. Norm took his time & tried to get a solution (even called me back twice), so I'm giving points for effort.
Not at all. After my first brush with mouse-induced wrist pain, I ran right out & got myself a Wacom tablet, and I use it all the time for general pointing & clicking. It's actually quite nice & natural feeling, and MUCH easier on my wrists than this stupid mouse. The only down side is that I lost the little stand you keep the pen in when you're not using it, so I'm constantly playing 'find the pointing device'
Ermm. Just for future reference, you should know the difference. Pork belly = bacon. Pork Barrel = public works projects given to a congressmans district. Pork belly = delicious for all except the Jewish, the Muslim and the vegetarian. Pork Barrel = great for those who get paid for it, slightly irritating for those who don't.
Erm. Ever seen jCVS? It's a java front end to CVS (duh). It ain't exactly Excel, but the layout is fairly complex, and it's even got cute little tree views & help pages & whatnot. The performance on my box (p2-266, about 2 years old now) isn't exactly as fast as native stuff, but it's damn well good enough. Yes, we all know Swing has more than a few performance problems, but it's also very easy to just KILL the performance with mistakes you don't even realize are mistakes. Primarily:
1) Never mix Swing & AWT and 2) Keep an eye on how many objects you're creating. It's damn easy to swamp the GC 3) Also, keep in mind that Swing is single-threaded. This can cause all kinds of freaky problems, ones which I HATE trying to track down.
Just tryin to help, so no need to get testy with me! ^_^
Java's plenty fast if you're careful. I mean, no one's going to be writing Quake4 in it, but it does the job pretty well. Swing is a big exception, but I believe Swing's slowness results from one or two critical graphics bugs. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Here's what tends to speed up java most:
1) Create less objects. Object creation is surprisingly expensive.
2) Don't use the String + operator anywhere you care about. Yikes, is that slow.
3) Examine what kind of algorithms the built-in Sun objects (Polygon, Vector, that sorta stuff) use - a lot of them are nice and clean, but less-than-optimal. If necessary, roll your own.
I find that most people who complian that Java is too slow haven't really worked at it too long. yes, you have to be more concious of performance than you would in C, but that's the price you pay for all the good java stuff like bounds checking and garbage collection... while we're on the topic of garbage collection, tho, if there's one thing I REALLY wish for every damn day it's the ability to turn the GC off and manage my own damn memory. The gc is the one huge area Java falls down on - at least when you're trying to write a large app.
The only thing sad about it is that it's taken so long. MS used their success as a club to ensure that any new ideas either made money for them or made money for no-one. They destroyed many innovative companies simply because MS felt threatened by them, and the companies refused to be absorbed. This is exactly the sort of behavior civilization is designed to protect us from.
No, it's not pure capitalism, but then you don't live in a purely capitalist country. And before you start weeping over that, remember the capitalist excesses of the 1800s, back when the US was much closer to a pure capitalist state. Not where I'd want to live.
Clearly, everyone here believes the web is important, yes? Then how can you possibly defend a position that denies access to the web to a not insignificant segment of the world? I mean, really - is it that hard to just add stinkin ALT tags? What could possibly be the justification for being opposed to making sites accessible to the blind?? Laziness? Some kind of blind faith that govt regulation is always bad? Meanness?
Slashdot Mirror
They've got an office there with managers and secretaries and everything. Geesh. Do some research before you shoot your mouth off.
Hunting and gathering? Works great! Why change?
Serfdom? It works dandy - I just farm this here land and give taxes to his Lordship and everythings hunky-dory.
Eh? Electricity? Why bother - these gas lamps and candles work just fine.
Sheesh.
-Mr. Nedd
Bah. Binary multiplatform is where stuff gets really COOL. I mean, write once, compile anywhere is nifty, but it doesn't even start to approach how cool binary multiplatform is.
And, really, how meaningful is the fact that there's a compiler for everything? I mean, geez, that makes FORTRAN and Pascal and just about every other mainstream language I can think of is multiplatform.
"Unfortunately, Java isn't really multiplatform, either, unlike what Sun's marketing team would have you believe. Java is multiplatform in the same way that my Super Nintendo ROM is: I can play it on windows, linux, solaris, etc. I need an emulator, of course. Similarly, I need a "Java Virtual Machine" to run my Java bytecode: it's really just an emulator for a platform that doesn't exist. And if the emulator isn't ported to your favorite platform, well, tough. "
Um. DUH. How would you make a language that's multiplatform without an interpreter or a compiler for every platform you wanted to run it on?!? If you say java isn't multiplatform, then nothing is, it seems to me.
Freenet has this sort of thing built in. The less objects are accessed, the more nodes they drop off of. Eventually, if no one is interested in it, the file drops off Freenet, never to be seen again, much like the Passenger Pigeon or the other extinct thing that I can't think of right now.
I installed SuSE 6.0 some time ago and all went well except the DHCP kept dropping me. So I called the 1-800 number & talked to a very nice guy (Hi Norm!) who couldn't quite solve my problem. He reported that no one else ever seemed to have a problem with it, and suggested that maybe my ISP had weirdo settings on their server. While there was no solution for me (i figured it out later on me own), I still thought SuSE support was pretty good. Norm took his time & tried to get a solution (even called me back twice), so I'm giving points for effort.
Not at all. After my first brush with mouse-induced wrist pain, I ran right out & got myself a Wacom tablet, and I use it all the time for general pointing & clicking. It's actually quite nice & natural feeling, and MUCH easier on my wrists than this stupid mouse. The only down side is that I lost the little stand you keep the pen in when you're not using it, so I'm constantly playing 'find the pointing device'
At last - an excuse to execute Michael Jackson!
pork belly
pork barrel
we clear?
Sure is for me. So there's ... what .. two of us?
^_^
Erm. Ever seen jCVS? It's a java front end to CVS (duh). It ain't exactly Excel, but the layout is fairly complex, and it's even got cute little tree views & help pages & whatnot. The performance on my box (p2-266, about 2 years old now) isn't exactly as fast as native stuff, but it's damn well good enough. Yes, we all know Swing has more than a few performance problems, but it's also very easy to just KILL the performance with mistakes you don't even realize are mistakes. Primarily:
1) Never mix Swing & AWT and
2) Keep an eye on how many objects you're creating. It's damn easy to swamp the GC
3) Also, keep in mind that Swing is single-threaded. This can cause all kinds of freaky problems, ones which I HATE trying to track down.
Just tryin to help, so no need to get testy with me! ^_^
Java's plenty fast if you're careful. I mean, no one's going to be writing Quake4 in it, but it does the job pretty well. Swing is a big exception, but I believe Swing's slowness results from one or two critical graphics bugs. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
... while we're on the topic of garbage collection, tho, if there's one thing I REALLY wish for every damn day it's the ability to turn the GC off and manage my own damn memory. The gc is the one huge area Java falls down on - at least when you're trying to write a large app.
Here's what tends to speed up java most:
1) Create less objects. Object creation is surprisingly expensive.
2) Don't use the String + operator anywhere you care about. Yikes, is that slow.
3) Examine what kind of algorithms the built-in Sun objects (Polygon, Vector, that sorta stuff) use - a lot of them are nice and clean, but less-than-optimal. If necessary, roll your own.
I find that most people who complian that Java is too slow haven't really worked at it too long. yes, you have to be more concious of performance than you would in C, but that's the price you pay for all the good java stuff like bounds checking and garbage collection
Must ... resist ... must ... not ... make ... must not make ... smartass ... remark ... must maintain ... control ... must ... ARRRRGH!!
Hey - don't let the door hit you on the ass on your way out, pal.
Phew. Man. Ok, that was entirely uncalled for, but I feel much better now.
The only thing sad about it is that it's taken so long. MS used their success as a club to ensure that any new ideas either made money for them or made money for no-one. They destroyed many innovative companies simply because MS felt threatened by them, and the companies refused to be absorbed. This is exactly the sort of behavior civilization is designed to protect us from.
No, it's not pure capitalism, but then you don't live in a purely capitalist country. And before you start weeping over that, remember the capitalist excesses of the 1800s, back when the US was much closer to a pure capitalist state. Not where I'd want to live.
Clearly, everyone here believes the web is important, yes? Then how can you possibly defend a position that denies access to the web to a not insignificant segment of the world? I mean, really - is it that hard to just add stinkin ALT tags? What could possibly be the justification for being opposed to making sites accessible to the blind?? Laziness? Some kind of blind faith that govt regulation is always bad? Meanness?
what we need is a good 3d input device. THAT would be different.