Re: [9fans] Re: Threads: Sewing badges of honor onto a Kernel

[Dick Davies <rasputnik@hellooperator.net>]

David Tolpin wrote:

> Java is done right in concept.

wtf?

[ Let me start by saying I don't speak for any of these guys,
I can't even get their OS to run a GUI.]


Java is better than C++, but as others have mentioned that's like saying
toothache is better than herpes.

It's just C without pointer arithmetic.  Leaving aside actual 
implementation bugs, it :

* runs on less platforms than any other language I've ever used,
* wimped out of having numeric types implemented as objects, then
bolted on 'containers' for them in 1.1
*has changed its GUI twice and *still* doesn't do it right,
* it's thread model is essential to its operation but differs widely 
between VMs even on the same platform
* the same it true for its garbage collector.
* The APIs are huge and inconsistent.
* it *finally* - in 1.4 - has a regex API (which is unusably complex).
* it's native code bindings are absolutely the worst I've ever seen,
even Perl does a better job

And don't forget m5 current personal favourite -
  its pointlessly restrictive type system.

Type is stored in the *pointer*, not the object.
So I have to hold the VMs hand each time I pass an argument.
I'm not allowed to reuse a variable to
point to an List and a Vector, even if I'm going to call a method
with the same name on both.

And then to really piss in my chips, 90% of the Collections API
which lets me store these objects and actually *do* something with them
only lets me pull them out as Object.

I HAVE TO CAST THEM. So when I get an object 'dynamically' - via RMI or
out of a Vector or whatever, I have to know what it is in advance.
The poor frigging object doesn't know (no, don't get me started on the 
abomination that is the reflection API, people are already starting to 
stare).

And this is a dynamic language. KERR-RIST.

None of this matters of course, because "it's better than C++".
And IT managers think the Sun shines out of its ass.

Java is the f*cking COBOL of the 90s and
future generations of geeks are going to fly back from Mars to piss on 
our graves for inflicting it on them.

> Unfortunately. I can do system programming and command-line
> apps with Java. 

Sure. If you don't mind a fifteen second delay while the VM drags itself 
up from the bottom of the sea each time you run a command line app.

Or should that '.' be a ',' ?