Java, was Re: [geeks] my head just went explodey

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Mon, 04 Apr 2005 @ 14:06 -0400, Patrick Giagnocavo said:

> On Mon, Apr 04, 2005 at 12:55:22PM -0500, Jonathan C. Patschke wrote:
> > 
> > If I never see J2EE again after my stint at this place, it'll still be
> > too soon.
> 
> It IS possible to write decent Java code.

It's a fine language, but I think few people take the time to consider
the negatives before jumping on the hype wagon, or worse, take the time
to consider other languages which might be a far better fit for the
problem at hand.

I also almost never see significant programs in Java that are portable,
or easy to debug, read, and maintain, and most I've cared for as an
admin have been resource nightmares.

The problem with magic bullet fantasies like Java is that the language
is not the primary cause of failure in most projects in the first place.

Java also tends to attract buzzword monkies far more often than it
attracts decent programmers, and a very large number of them know almost
nothing about computers otherwise, and it shows.

The only time I've seen good Java programs (at work) that were also
portable and otherwise good, they were done by programmer's whom I felt
could have done the same thing in another language.

Most Java I see is about the same quality level as most Visual Basic
that I see, and I think some of the reasons are largely the same.

All of which makes me ask, what is the point?

I suppose my biggest beef with Java, is how it is so hyped, along with
C++ and PHP, that other very good languages go largely unused.


-- 
shannon "AT" widomaker.com -- ["An Irishman is never drunk as long as he
can hold onto one blade of grass and not fall off the face of the earth."]