[Gllug] More Microsoft patents

[Andy Farnsworth]

> Java is almost the worst possible language for implementing a project.
> I would never recommend it for new projects, at least not while
> superior quality alternatives exist like Perl, Python, CAML, etc.
> Among the current hassles I'm having: lack of closures, checked
> exceptions, lack of type safety in containers, verbose and clumsy
> imports, no regexps in the language, and it's sloooowwwwwwwwwww.

I will agree with much of this, but as much as I agree with you, I have to
qualify the slow statement.  Java requires a runtime environment which in
almost every case of running java is not currently resident in memory.  This
means that when you start a java program, you must completely load the JRE
and prepare it for your code.  Once the actual java starts to execute, it is
fairly fast, it is just the setup time that is a big hit.  This is a huge
problem for small applications or stateless applications that run and
terminate, run and terminate, etc.  This is the pattern for many Web apps,
and why java is not used in the CGI environment.  It is also the reason and
justification for an application server that will load, run, and keep
resident in memory your java applications for the backend of your web site.
This environment takes a while to get running and compile your java byte
code, but it caches almost everything so it runs quickly, once it has run
once.

Don't get me wrong, it is still a big issue, but after working with IBM on a
WebSphere Application Server implemntation, I can certainly see it's uses.

Andy Farnsworth


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