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Subject:
From:
Gary Kephart <[log in to unmask]>
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Date:
Wed, 7 Mar 2001 12:55:16 -0800
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"Crispen, Bob" wrote:

[snip]

> I wanted to like Java.  God knows I did.  And for a
> while I held onto the hope that the Java runtime would
> improve or the state of computers would improve to the
> point where it wasn't buggy, crash-prone, incapable of
> doing what you need, and slooooooooooooooow.

[snip]

> And Java zealots make the most rabid of Ada zealots look
> like rank amateurs.  Perhaps they're so fanatical *because*
> the future hope of Java is so far from the reality, while
> Ada fans generally got some immediate gratification -- Ada
> compilers have always been pretty good -- to cool their
> fires.  Java fans have been wandering in the desert for
> years and years without a drop of water in sight.

[snip]

> But at the end of the day, you just gotta face it: java as
> it exists here and now doesn't just suck, it blows chunks.
> It crashes your web browser -- I run 3 web browsers, and
> java that two of them like will crash the third; it fails
> for mysterious, inexplicable reasons (one of my favorites
> is the number of people who've had to load the JDK *and*
> the JRE); and did I mention that it was mind-numbingly,
> frustratingly, maddeningly sloooooooow?

Okay, okay. I finally have to step out of lurker mode.

Background: I haven't used Ada since 1993. I've kept with Team Ada
because I think Ada is a technically superior language. Since '93, I've
been working with C++ and now Java (for the past three years). Every
once in a great while I scan the Team Ada messages.

Java doesn't suck. That's not to say that it's perfect - it's not. But,
for the stuff that I've been working on (client/server on WinNT) it's
been doing just fine. It's far better than C++. It's not that slow,
either. Yeah, it's not the faster language out there. But let's step
back a few years and remember that Ada once had speed problems. It's not
until the compilers improved that the reputation started to fade away.
The biggest problem we're facing here at work is that there's not an
up-to-date version of the JVM for the Mac, not speed.

I like Java. I also liked Ada. Haven't had the chance to play with
Ada95. I'm not sure what you're doing that crashed the JVM, but we
haven't run into those problems.

So why am I not using Ada now? That probably belongs in a different
thread and my reasons have probably been used by countless others and
argued ad nauseum. But, briefly,
1) I want a job that pays big bucks that's not in aerospace and not
embedded systems
2) Java resources are more visible (mainly due to marketing) and more
accessible because of that
3) I don't want to be the one to try and convince whole companies to
switch from C++ or Java to Ada. Too much of a headache.

Ok, I'm donning my flame-resistant suit now.

BTW, I am looking for a job in the Irvine, CA area. Maybe someone can
point me to some good Ada jobs there.

Gary
--
Gary Kephart, Software Engineer  |  eMotion, Inc.
Phone: (310)914-2771             |  11835 West Olympic, Suite 1000
Fax:   (310)479-8480             |  Los Angeles, CA  90064
mailto:[log in to unmask]      |  http://www.emotion.com
Team Ada member                  |  "Digital Media Management"

Disclaimer: these are my opinions, not eMotion's.

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