Back in 1995, I played Quakeworld in a great clan (the Brotherhood of Moo - not exactly the most feared clan in the game, but a great bunch of people), as ZENDog.
Zoom in to 2005, and I'm playing WoW on EU-Shadowsong, as Zendog. I'm sat in the middle of Ironforge, not doing a great deal, when I get a whisper from an old clan mate, because he recognised my online name! This is 10 years later, in a completely different game. Although chance and coincidence are involved, there is a great deal in a name!
CmdrTaco, you have my sympathies.
... then you can always express your opinions on the matter. Failing that, you can just vent spleen at them, although I wouldn't reccomend it.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/make_complaint_s tep1.shtml
Select the "Make official complaint" option, and say what you want to say.
I wrote to them suggesting they may be able to turn it into a more community-based site. IMHO it would make sense to keep a base of loyal fans than to put them out in the cold.
Most companies have a preferred language. If you're developing in java, then the products you mention will just be more reasons of why you *can* do what you want using java. It's flexible like that.
I tried to develop some applications for my cellphone using J2ME, unfortunately when I did try to do it I found several limitations. Primarily because it does not take advantage of features provided by the device.
This is why MIDP2.0 is a good thing, which was the point of the article. Did you RTFA?:)
Seriously though, this is also a benefit as well as a drawback. If java had an all-encompassing API, it would likely be too big for a lot of handsets, cost too much to implement, and therefore fail as a language.
Although for the most part J2ME is meant to be as portable for as many devices as possible, it would've been nice to provide facilities to manipulate common PDA features such as: address book, calendar and todo list. I was surprised I couldn't even touch those when I was doing MIDP development before.
Have you considered the security implications of this? Another of javas strengths in this field is its strong security focus.
J2ME is more about connectivity to remote systems which may be good for business applications, its also very expensive to deploy because of the costs of cell phone air time. Still its not too bad.
Most of the posts (not yours, I might add) putting java down seem to be hung up on performance. I agree with what you say about air-time, but this will be the same for any language running on a limited device. As your next paragraph states, you can get some pretty good games running on java, and I'd agree that it is a good (the best) solution for games and business apps alike.
I think it would gain ground if Symbian releases a library that provides direct access to its core facilities such as changing the screen saver, the background images, and replacing the application menu. Mind you there are applications that do these already, though you have to pay for it for something so simple, although setting up the C development environment for Symbian is difficult too.
You can do this with Symbian C++ apps. However, Symbian C++ isn't available on that many handsets, and as you say, developing for Symbian C++ is difficult - the hello world program consists of four/five classes! IMHO that's a bit too heavyweight for what most developers need.
I've also just noticed your title: "Why it won't gain ground". Java comes on the vast majority of handsets. That is the main reason it won't gain ground. The reason it's got so much market share now is that it's small and light enough (while still being a reasonable, viable performer) to go on most handsets, and a reason why it has much greater market share than Symbian C++ (which is still a great language, just a bit too heavyweight IMHO).
J2ME MIDP 1.0 fragmented the embedded market, takes too many precious resources, and is an underperformer.
With respect, I don't think it was the MIDP1.0 that fragmented the market (after all, it was a specification) - just the fact that the different handset manufacturers implementations of MIDP1.0 were different is what produced dissimilar results.
If anything, MIDP1.0 united the market (nowadays, nearly all handsets come with a MIDP implementation) because it had a broad enough scope and was small enough that handset manufacturers would include it with little hassle - remember that in the world of handset manufacturers, development support is way down the list of priorities.
Re: Resources and performance, that's down to the manufacturers implementation. You can't just make a sweeping statement like that and expect it to be the same for all handsets!
J2ME MIDP 2.0 was better in terms of features, but little else.
The features that were implemented in MIDP2.0 covered pretty much all the gaps that MIDP1.0 highlighted. The great thing about it was that it was all the right gaps without bloating it!
If J2ME MIDP is so wonderful, why do the cellphone manufacturers write their applications in C++ (especially for the Symbian OS)? Perhaps it's because they know those dirty little secrets?
... Which are handset-specific. SymbianOS handsets don't account for a large piece of the market at all. Java works because you can write an app and port it to 90% of handsets.
Put down the SUN cup with MicroJava and get into rehab.
I don't really evangelise about languages, or have my favourites. It's a case of using the best tool for the job, which IMHO is java. Your whole argument seems to be based on performance alone - while that is fair and good for performance-critical apps, java performance isn't that bad, and performance is only an issue for certain applications.
Re: get into rehab. Why resort to flamebait? It's only a choice of language.
I guess, the best way to transmit the moves would be WMA, but this won't be available until MIDP 2 is more popular.
I certainly wouldn't wait for MIDP2.0 to become popular, that's a fair while away still (Nokia's 6600 is the first MIDP2.0 phone, I'd give it about six months before the technology becomes more widely accepted, and a couple years before it becomes ubiquitous for Java phones).
You could do it easily using a central server, making http connections to it when you make a move (passing the appropriate parameters on connection) - the server remembers who your opponent is, and the next time the opponent connects to the server, requesting an update, they are sent the updated moves, and maybe a short message.
It's not as elegant as WMA (I assume WMA just pops a message off, SMS-stylee, to the other phone, so your opponent doesn't need to check the server for any game updates, as with this method), as it requires users to log in and check their game list, like checking e-mail, rather than being seamless.
ATEOTD it's a tradeoff - MIDP1.x doesn't allow for true peer to peer communication (as with MIDP2.0), just person to person via a central server.
If you would like to discuss this further, give us an e-mail (available via my webshite, as linked - don't use the hotmail address, it's for the spam).
I wonder if Episode VII-IX would be a good choice as first projects?
Probably not as first projects, it's like handing an extremely important contract to the 17-year old trainee (who happens to be the son of the company's chairman).
Regardless of if the last three episodes are to be made into films or not (I predict that they will... eventually at least). I remember reading books which purported to continue the films' plotline (there was a renegade Empire general, and a jedi training camp, and Leia had twins who were uber-powerful jedi), but although these books were officially sanctioned books in the series of nine, AFAIK they wern't written by Lucas and so may not get the seal of approval to actually become films.
Still, I wonder if this "pad" comes with a warning not to leave credit cards, etc. near it?
Having read the website, they're saying that it's no trouble for credit cards. If they have to keep the power levels low, then it may hamper the device's usefulness. Perhaps they could have variable speeds, perhaps you could crank it right up and fry eggs on it! Toasty:)
this is why there's a global ipv4 shortage, cos the bastards at the DoD and other places own most of them
I think that possibly a more relevant explanation of the ipv4 shortage would be that because there are so many new nodes being added, a shortage of addresses was obviously going to happen at some point. What with all the mobile phones and other, smaller devices (i.e. embedded systems in Internet-enabled fridges etc). that are connecting, ipv4 was going to run out at some point.
Besides, ipv6 should sort out that problem... Come 2010 even us poor souls in the UK may have completely switched to the new protocol version. Just in time to see BT finally provide full, half-decent UK broadband coverage (maybe give it a few more years though eh):)
Ummm.. what is the problem with using something like PayPal?
I'm not sure that many large companies accept PayPal. Wasn't it more of an eBay thing, for individuals and SMEs? I also have heard they take something like 10% of the transaction, which is a piece of the pie that many businesses would resent handing over. The article also stated that this was for credit card transactions, where the cost of an individual transaction was quite high.
This seems an interesting idea though, but the main pitfalls are in consumer/business trust, and market takeup. I was talking to a colleague about those 'beanz' money-token things, which were around a few years earlier, and were supposed to take care of micropayments (wern't they?). They were everywhere, but just seem to have been a short craze. Whether this will go the way of beanz remains to be seen.
Maybe they should virtually arrest him and give him a virtual fine or virtual jail!
I think the fact that real money was involved at some point (how much is ¥50k anyway?) is what's got the authorities involved. There was loads of this sort of thing with Diablo II I believe (not really an expert on these MMORPGs though, don't think real money got stolen, although there were a few auto-generated (i.e. fake - an interesting concept in a virtual world) items being sold, wern't there?).
It seems as though this will be a new trend in/type of crime. I will be interested to see what the outcome of this one is, and let's not forget the poor sod who paid real money for this house, and got sold up the river. "I paid 50k Yen for this virtual house, and all I got was this lousy Tee-shirt!" *hehehehe* >)
... then fax your local MP (UK citizens only). stand.org.uk are campaigning against this, and you can use a web-based, quick fax submission which will help register an anti-ID card opinion.
There was recently a story in the Register (and BBC news) on how there was a large amount of negative feedback using a web-based fax gateway (FaxYourMP.com I think). The government are doing a separate study on this as well, which the stand.org.uk campagn is against. They have received assurances from the government that any web based complaints will be treated as seriously as regular letters of complaint (much easier too).
If you don't like it though, there is a quick and easy opportunity to register your displeasure at it: www.stand.org.uk.
I don't think it'll be like that. I think this new ruling means that everything concerning the human genome is public domain now
Oops! I stand corrected... The new patents are now refused, and (quoting from the article):
"companies have figured out ways to work around issued patents for specific genes and proteins."
So it seems to be saying that although the previous patents have not been invalidated, there are workarounds.
If they do keep the current patents, how can they justify not allowing patents to be set while keeping other patents? Isn't it just a case of double standards?
I don't think it'll be like that. I think this new ruling means that everything concerning the human genome is public domain now - makes sense really, general good of humanity and all that:)
Did you read my post? Look again, particularly at this bit of it:
I think the point is that they have no creative influence in the music-making process itself.
Although I agree with your point, that they have a a say in the music their artists create. They hire a producer to manage the recording of your album, the re-recording, re-writes etc until you have a product the company is happy with, that's not the same as having creative influence.
It's just terminology at the end of the day, but having a say in the music the artists create is not having a creative influence on the music itself. Sorry for being a pedant:)
What's wrong with "recording companies make the music?"
Not wanting to state the obvious, but it's a symbiotic relationship between recording company and artist, which is why the recording companies don't actually make the music. They finance it, fair enough, so they have a part in making the music, but I think the point is that they have no creative influence in the music-making process itself. I guess it's what you mean by making the music...
You've got a point though, but if record companies suddenly ceased to exist, would music itself die too? Personally, I think not ^_^
If it's going to get bigger for phones, it's got to be faster
I'm not too sure what you mean by this. When I said 'bigger', I meant that it was a big player, with loads of market-share.
Incidentally, J2ME *is* getting bigger, with the next MIDP version (think of MIDP as a cut down Java API) coming out (at 2.0 now, although it won't make it onto a suitable number of handsets until late 2003). I personally think this is a good thing - the functionality currently available with MIDP1.x is pretty cut-down, and the phone specs are increasing at a downright scary rate, so any bloat (and I think it's all been designed very well, collaboratively with handset manufacturers, so bloat isn't realy an issue) will be offset by faster handsets!
Re:The Future of Java? Even Brighter!!
on
The Future of Java?
·
· Score: 5, Informative
I agree completely with your comments on the future of Java as a server side solution. JSP, servlets, and J2EE are all fantastic.
Sure Swing is a little sluggish, but when everyone is running a p4 2GHz, it really doesn't matter....
But it does matter, if other programming languages still run relatively faster than Java. I agree that it's not as clunky as it was a few years ago though... *shudder*
Two things I feel you've left out are:
1 - The embedded systems market. When I was at Uni this was being touted as the next best thing. I don't have any real statistics for you, but I'm sure Java is doing well in this field.
2 - The mobile phone market. Pretty similar to my first point, the KVM (Kilobyte VM - a cut-down version of JVM) and related APIs in J2ME are a big player in the mobile phone business. The company I work for is developing mobile phone games, and Java has got the support of the handset manufacturers, which will give it superiority over other technologies that havn't had as good an uptake.
Because, apparently, they are the western world's favourite fruit. I heard this on the radio this morning, so it must be true:) (although they didn't mention that they were being sequenced in the story, only that they were heading for extinction).
all so that CostaRicans can use less pesticides, make more money from all of us banana loving Westerners.
Is this the 'free for small operations' bit of the article then? Surely that's a good thing though. Whether they're Costa Ricans or not shouldn't matter, should it? Perhaps I'm missing your point.
If you can't be bothered to google it, try zalman - They are meant to be the best for quiet PC business. The next PC I get will definitly be a silent one (which they purportedly do), my current one sounds a bit like a hurricane!:)
That's... umm, 150ish dpi, right? I'd expect that to be possible now. We've been at 75 or 72 or whatever for a long time now. Perhaps I'm missing some important point on dpi (I'll google it in a bit), perhaps not.
Also, the issue with "who needs this when your phone does this already", I reckon it's just a case of terminology. As I'm sure people have said before (apologies for the redundancy), there really isn't much difference between the phones/PDAs of nowadays (just the input method), the market appears to be converging and could quite easily include this 'new' MS-MessagePhone.
I'd not rush out to get a T720 myself. Having developed for it for several months now, I can safely say that it is buggy, slow and clunky (IMO). The Nokia 7650 is better, but you can't do much with any of the J2ME phones (i.e. sound, addressbook) until MIDP2.0 comes out - give it 'till late 2003...
I believe Norweb (or what was Norweb at that time) attempted to do much the same. Didn't their attempt fail badly due to some sort of interference from the current (not exactly sure)?
One thing I find that adds bugs is when the management feel that an extra 'feature' or two is the most useful thing you could do. It's not - every thime the spec changes, you're having to hack little extra bits into the system.
I suppose a modular design is useful, as the 'plugging in' of new modules will not make huge, bloated classes.
The way we test things is to get the developer to test his own work, then a tester tests the work. The amount of bugs found by the tester is noted, and the developer fixes them, then back to the next test iteration.
It's about sharing the responsibility for when things go wrong - the amount of bugs found by the tester relate to how well the developer is doing, but when the tester finally says a system has 'passed', they also become responsible. I guess it's fear motivating people to produce quality software.
Slashdot Mirror
Back in 1995, I played Quakeworld in a great clan (the Brotherhood of Moo - not exactly the most feared clan in the game, but a great bunch of people), as ZENDog. Zoom in to 2005, and I'm playing WoW on EU-Shadowsong, as Zendog. I'm sat in the middle of Ironforge, not doing a great deal, when I get a whisper from an old clan mate, because he recognised my online name! This is 10 years later, in a completely different game. Although chance and coincidence are involved, there is a great deal in a name! CmdrTaco, you have my sympathies.
... then you can always express your opinions on the matter. Failing that, you can just vent spleen at them, although I wouldn't reccomend it.
s tep1.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/make_complaint_
Select the "Make official complaint" option, and say what you want to say.
I wrote to them suggesting they may be able to turn it into a more community-based site. IMHO it would make sense to keep a base of loyal fans than to put them out in the cold.
Most companies have a preferred language. If you're developing in java, then the products you mention will just be more reasons of why you *can* do what you want using java. It's flexible like that.
I tried to develop some applications for my cellphone using J2ME, unfortunately when I did try to do it I found several limitations. Primarily because it does not take advantage of features provided by the device.
:)
This is why MIDP2.0 is a good thing, which was the point of the article. Did you RTFA?
Seriously though, this is also a benefit as well as a drawback. If java had an all-encompassing API, it would likely be too big for a lot of handsets, cost too much to implement, and therefore fail as a language.
Although for the most part J2ME is meant to be as portable for as many devices as possible, it would've been nice to provide facilities to manipulate common PDA features such as: address book, calendar and todo list. I was surprised I couldn't even touch those when I was doing MIDP development before.
Have you considered the security implications of this? Another of javas strengths in this field is its strong security focus.
J2ME is more about connectivity to remote systems which may be good for business applications, its also very expensive to deploy because of the costs of cell phone air time. Still its not too bad.
Most of the posts (not yours, I might add) putting java down seem to be hung up on performance. I agree with what you say about air-time, but this will be the same for any language running on a limited device. As your next paragraph states, you can get some pretty good games running on java, and I'd agree that it is a good (the best) solution for games and business apps alike.
I think it would gain ground if Symbian releases a library that provides direct access to its core facilities such as changing the screen saver, the background images, and replacing the application menu. Mind you there are applications that do these already, though you have to pay for it for something so simple, although setting up the C development environment for Symbian is difficult too.
You can do this with Symbian C++ apps. However, Symbian C++ isn't available on that many handsets, and as you say, developing for Symbian C++ is difficult - the hello world program consists of four/five classes! IMHO that's a bit too heavyweight for what most developers need.
I've also just noticed your title: "Why it won't gain ground". Java comes on the vast majority of handsets. That is the main reason it won't gain ground. The reason it's got so much market share now is that it's small and light enough (while still being a reasonable, viable performer) to go on most handsets, and a reason why it has much greater market share than Symbian C++ (which is still a great language, just a bit too heavyweight IMHO).
J2ME MIDP 1.0 fragmented the embedded market, takes too many precious resources, and is an underperformer.
... Which are handset-specific. SymbianOS handsets don't account for a large piece of the market at all. Java works because you can write an app and port it to 90% of handsets.
With respect, I don't think it was the MIDP1.0 that fragmented the market (after all, it was a specification) - just the fact that the different handset manufacturers implementations of MIDP1.0 were different is what produced dissimilar results.
If anything, MIDP1.0 united the market (nowadays, nearly all handsets come with a MIDP implementation) because it had a broad enough scope and was small enough that handset manufacturers would include it with little hassle - remember that in the world of handset manufacturers, development support is way down the list of priorities.
Re: Resources and performance, that's down to the manufacturers implementation. You can't just make a sweeping statement like that and expect it to be the same for all handsets!
J2ME MIDP 2.0 was better in terms of features, but little else.
The features that were implemented in MIDP2.0 covered pretty much all the gaps that MIDP1.0 highlighted. The great thing about it was that it was all the right gaps without bloating it!
If J2ME MIDP is so wonderful, why do the cellphone manufacturers write their applications in C++ (especially for the Symbian OS)? Perhaps it's because they know those dirty little secrets?
Put down the SUN cup with MicroJava and get into rehab.
I don't really evangelise about languages, or have my favourites. It's a case of using the best tool for the job, which IMHO is java. Your whole argument seems to be based on performance alone - while that is fair and good for performance-critical apps, java performance isn't that bad, and performance is only an issue for certain applications.
Re: get into rehab. Why resort to flamebait? It's only a choice of language.
I guess, the best way to transmit the moves would be WMA, but this won't be available until MIDP 2 is more popular.
I certainly wouldn't wait for MIDP2.0 to become popular, that's a fair while away still (Nokia's 6600 is the first MIDP2.0 phone, I'd give it about six months before the technology becomes more widely accepted, and a couple years before it becomes ubiquitous for Java phones).
You could do it easily using a central server, making http connections to it when you make a move (passing the appropriate parameters on connection) - the server remembers who your opponent is, and the next time the opponent connects to the server, requesting an update, they are sent the updated moves, and maybe a short message.
It's not as elegant as WMA (I assume WMA just pops a message off, SMS-stylee, to the other phone, so your opponent doesn't need to check the server for any game updates, as with this method), as it requires users to log in and check their game list, like checking e-mail, rather than being seamless.
ATEOTD it's a tradeoff - MIDP1.x doesn't allow for true peer to peer communication (as with MIDP2.0), just person to person via a central server.
If you would like to discuss this further, give us an e-mail (available via my webshite, as linked - don't use the hotmail address, it's for the spam).
I wonder if Episode VII-IX would be a good choice as first projects?
Probably not as first projects, it's like handing an extremely important contract to the 17-year old trainee (who happens to be the son of the company's chairman).
Regardless of if the last three episodes are to be made into films or not (I predict that they will... eventually at least). I remember reading books which purported to continue the films' plotline (there was a renegade Empire general, and a jedi training camp, and Leia had twins who were uber-powerful jedi), but although these books were officially sanctioned books in the series of nine, AFAIK they wern't written by Lucas and so may not get the seal of approval to actually become films.
Anyone out there know anything else about this?
Still, I wonder if this "pad" comes with a warning not to leave credit cards, etc. near it?
:)
Having read the website, they're saying that it's no trouble for credit cards. If they have to keep the power levels low, then it may hamper the device's usefulness. Perhaps they could have variable speeds, perhaps you could crank it right up and fry eggs on it! Toasty
this is why there's a global ipv4 shortage, cos the bastards at the DoD and other places own most of them
:)
I think that possibly a more relevant explanation of the ipv4 shortage would be that because there are so many new nodes being added, a shortage of addresses was obviously going to happen at some point. What with all the mobile phones and other, smaller devices (i.e. embedded systems in Internet-enabled fridges etc). that are connecting, ipv4 was going to run out at some point.
Besides, ipv6 should sort out that problem... Come 2010 even us poor souls in the UK may have completely switched to the new protocol version. Just in time to see BT finally provide full, half-decent UK broadband coverage (maybe give it a few more years though eh)
Ummm.. what is the problem with using something like PayPal?
I'm not sure that many large companies accept PayPal. Wasn't it more of an eBay thing, for individuals and SMEs? I also have heard they take something like 10% of the transaction, which is a piece of the pie that many businesses would resent handing over. The article also stated that this was for credit card transactions, where the cost of an individual transaction was quite high.
This seems an interesting idea though, but the main pitfalls are in consumer/business trust, and market takeup. I was talking to a colleague about those 'beanz' money-token things, which were around a few years earlier, and were supposed to take care of micropayments (wern't they?). They were everywhere, but just seem to have been a short craze. Whether this will go the way of beanz remains to be seen.
Maybe they should virtually arrest him and give him a virtual fine or virtual jail!
I think the fact that real money was involved at some point (how much is ¥50k anyway?) is what's got the authorities involved. There was loads of this sort of thing with Diablo II I believe (not really an expert on these MMORPGs though, don't think real money got stolen, although there were a few auto-generated (i.e. fake - an interesting concept in a virtual world) items being sold, wern't there?).
It seems as though this will be a new trend in/type of crime. I will be interested to see what the outcome of this one is, and let's not forget the poor sod who paid real money for this house, and got sold up the river. "I paid 50k Yen for this virtual house, and all I got was this lousy Tee-shirt!" *hehehehe* >)
... then fax your local MP (UK citizens only). stand.org.uk are campaigning against this, and you can use a web-based, quick fax submission which will help register an anti-ID card opinion.
There was recently a story in the Register (and BBC news) on how there was a large amount of negative feedback using a web-based fax gateway (FaxYourMP.com I think). The government are doing a separate study on this as well, which the stand.org.uk campagn is against. They have received assurances from the government that any web based complaints will be treated as seriously as regular letters of complaint (much easier too).
If you don't like it though, there is a quick and easy opportunity to register your displeasure at it: www.stand.org.uk.
I don't think it'll be like that. I think this new ruling means that everything concerning the human genome is public domain now
Oops! I stand corrected... The new patents are now refused, and (quoting from the article):
"companies have figured out ways to work around issued patents for specific genes and proteins."
So it seems to be saying that although the previous patents have not been invalidated, there are workarounds.
If they do keep the current patents, how can they justify not allowing patents to be set while keeping other patents? Isn't it just a case of double standards?
:)
I don't think it'll be like that. I think this new ruling means that everything concerning the human genome is public domain now - makes sense really, general good of humanity and all that
Did you read my post? Look again, particularly at this bit of it:
:)
I think the point is that they have no creative influence in the music-making process itself.
Although I agree with your point, that they have a a say in the music their artists create. They hire a producer to manage the recording of your album, the re-recording, re-writes etc until you have a product the company is happy with, that's not the same as having creative influence.
It's just terminology at the end of the day, but having a say in the music the artists create is not having a creative influence on the music itself. Sorry for being a pedant
What's wrong with "recording companies make the music?"
Not wanting to state the obvious, but it's a symbiotic relationship between recording company and artist, which is why the recording companies don't actually make the music. They finance it, fair enough, so they have a part in making the music, but I think the point is that they have no creative influence in the music-making process itself. I guess it's what you mean by making the music...
You've got a point though, but if record companies suddenly ceased to exist, would music itself die too? Personally, I think not ^_^
If it's going to get bigger for phones, it's got to be faster
I'm not too sure what you mean by this. When I said 'bigger', I meant that it was a big player, with loads of market-share.
Incidentally, J2ME *is* getting bigger, with the next MIDP version (think of MIDP as a cut down Java API) coming out (at 2.0 now, although it won't make it onto a suitable number of handsets until late 2003). I personally think this is a good thing - the functionality currently available with MIDP1.x is pretty cut-down, and the phone specs are increasing at a downright scary rate, so any bloat (and I think it's all been designed very well, collaboratively with handset manufacturers, so bloat isn't realy an issue) will be offset by faster handsets!
I agree completely with your comments on the future of Java as a server side solution. JSP, servlets, and J2EE are all fantastic.
Sure Swing is a little sluggish, but when everyone is running a p4 2GHz, it really doesn't matter....
But it does matter, if other programming languages still run relatively faster than Java. I agree that it's not as clunky as it was a few years ago though... *shudder*
Two things I feel you've left out are:
1 - The embedded systems market. When I was at Uni this was being touted as the next best thing. I don't have any real statistics for you, but I'm sure Java is doing well in this field.
2 - The mobile phone market. Pretty similar to my first point, the KVM (Kilobyte VM - a cut-down version of JVM) and related APIs in J2ME are a big player in the mobile phone business. The company I work for is developing mobile phone games, and Java has got the support of the handset manufacturers, which will give it superiority over other technologies that havn't had as good an uptake.
If you can't be bothered to google it, try zalman - They are meant to be the best for quiet PC business. The next PC I get will definitly be a silent one (which they purportedly do), my current one sounds a bit like a hurricane! :)
That's... umm, 150ish dpi, right? I'd expect that to be possible now. We've been at 75 or 72 or whatever for a long time now. Perhaps I'm missing some important point on dpi (I'll google it in a bit), perhaps not.
Also, the issue with "who needs this when your phone does this already", I reckon it's just a case of terminology. As I'm sure people have said before (apologies for the redundancy), there really isn't much difference between the phones/PDAs of nowadays (just the input method), the market appears to be converging and could quite easily include this 'new' MS-MessagePhone.
I'd not rush out to get a T720 myself. Having developed for it for several months now, I can safely say that it is buggy, slow and clunky (IMO). The Nokia 7650 is better, but you can't do much with any of the J2ME phones (i.e. sound, addressbook) until MIDP2.0 comes out - give it 'till late 2003...
I believe Norweb (or what was Norweb at that time) attempted to do much the same. Didn't their attempt fail badly due to some sort of interference from the current (not exactly sure)?
One thing I find that adds bugs is when the management feel that an extra 'feature' or two is the most useful thing you could do. It's not - every thime the spec changes, you're having to hack little extra bits into the system.
I suppose a modular design is useful, as the 'plugging in' of new modules will not make huge, bloated classes.
The way we test things is to get the developer to test his own work, then a tester tests the work. The amount of bugs found by the tester is noted, and the developer fixes them, then back to the next test iteration.
It's about sharing the responsibility for when things go wrong - the amount of bugs found by the tester relate to how well the developer is doing, but when the tester finally says a system has 'passed', they also become responsible. I guess it's fear motivating people to produce quality software.
Just a few thoughts.
Adrian Hill @ zendog.co.uk.
I reckon this is because it is designed for the 'autistic monkey slaves' mentioned in the first post.
Fair enough, I say.