From: Jim Freeze <jfreeze@...>
Date: 2002-08-23T02:12:08+09:00
Subject: Re: A Repeat: New Language After Ruby?

On Fri, Aug 23, 2002 at 12:06:45AM +0900, Dave Thomas wrote:
> tran55555@yahoo.com (Email55555) writes:
> 
> > Is it just learn the syntax of language ?  It is much much
> > difference depend on your definition of "learn".  Think about this,
> > learn java language, I think you can spend a little bit of time to
> > learn java syntax.  But if you want learn the entire API, Oops, that
> > take may-be not in one year ( J2SE, J2EE ).
> 
> Learning a language means coming to understand it: the philosophy, the
> idioms, and the "way things are done". Doing that gives insight,
> insight that can often be applied in different arenas.
> 
> With Java, I see little point in learning all the libraries if Java is
> simply one of your "languages of the year". The incremental benefit of
> studying the 804th API set is marginal.
> 
> However, it _is_ interesting to study the Java libraries at a higher
> level. One of the things I learned from Java is the entire concept of
> library-based programming. Libraries are pervasive in Java, to the
> eternal detriment of the Java community (and computing at
> large). Developers writing java are pretty much taught not to write
> applications, but instead to write libraries, and then glue these
> together with a minimal application core. The result: remarkably
> bloated applications, full of code that's never used, and full of
> patterns because "that's the way to code libraries". Josh Bloch's
> Effective java is a great book, but it is redolent with library
> thinking--write these methods because someone may need them...
> 

That is interesting because years ago all I heard was how
OO was the way to go because code reuse (ie, libraries)
would save time and money. (BTW, I did not buy into the OO
panacea hype --as I put it. I used OO but did not think OO
until Ruby).

Did Java go overboard, or were they too stoic in their
implementation, or what?

> Dave

Jim

-- 
Jim Freeze
If only I had something clever to say for my comment...
~