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Elitism?
Posted by webmink on June 11, 2003 at 09:56 AM | Comments (3)
Alan Williamson wasn't too impressed with Jonathan Schwartz's keynote yesterday, it seems (complete with IDE demos - I hope he's enjoying the Project Rave demo I am watching now!). I'm very interested in his comments on the desire to expand the Java developer base from 3 million to 10 million. He says: The threshold that we call someone a developer, is going to be dropped significantly ... Sun have historically treated the developer with respect. Giving them the attention and kudos they solely craved. Java developers are real developers; they don't want to be labelled with the Microsoft VB/Marco crowd. Sun will have to be very careful in how they are going to take this forward without alienating and devaluing the current developer base. Similarly, William Grosso is worried: The distinction that I'm starting to see is that there no longer seems to be much of a role for a general purpose programmer. The primary skill required of a Java programmer these days seems to be significant expertise in some set of related specifications. My personal view is that the way to expand the developer community is not to 'drop the threshold' but rather to expand the range of languages that target the Java platform. That's why the discussion in this morning's keynote concerning the embrace of programming languages like PHP and Jython (Sean will be pleased!) is so important. PHP and Jython programming isn't dumbed-down - it's just the use of the tools that are fit for the job, and embracing a wider range of tools simply expands the scope rather than lowers the bar.
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Jython
I urge any Java developer who has yet to do so to give Jython a try. Its really a remarkably elegant fusion of the static and the dynamic programming worlds and an excellent candidate, not only for unit testing but also for writing servlets or JMS clients or, well anything that you might like to do with the JDK on the JVM!
Posted by: propylonsean on June 11, 2003 at 01:36 PM
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Java Elitism
Responding to the question: "Is the use of scripting 'dumbed down' programming? Or is Java exclusivity just misplaced elitism?"--
The use of scripting is no more 'dumbed down' programming any more than Java programming is 'dumbed down' programming to a C++ programmer. I have programmed for many years in C, then in C++ before using Java.
To me, Java was much simpler than C++ in some respects, and it was 'klunkier' and 'kludgier' than C++ in other respects.
I have not yet tried Jython, but I intend to soon. I have used PHP, and I like it a lot. A programmer chooses to use a particular tool because he believes it is the best one to use for the particular job he intends to do. The more tools we have available to choose from, the better off we are. New tools, implementing new ideas, create and promote progress. An overly zealous (almost religious?) attachment to Java as the only way to go is just misplaced elitism, and it tends to inhibit progress.
Posted by: bobert on June 12, 2003 at 08:04 AM
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Mix and Match
Letting other languages play nice with Java offers developers the best of mutliple worlds. A tool such as JRuby [http://jruby.sourceforge.net/] offers the power and superbly clean OO of Ruby, while still giving developers acccess to the range of Java libraries and applications. I would rather write core business logic in Ruby, which I foind far more agile than Java, but appreciate being able to hook into Java.
Posted by: jamesbritt on June 14, 2003 at 08:44 AM
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