I think the tool you use must be suited to the problem you are trying to solve. For some projects, Java may be too much to hassle with. I simple python program will do. In other cases, Java is perfectly acceptable. It has the perfect position between high and low level. IBM's SWT may be the ticket to giving your application a little more speed and beauty. It may trade off a little of the portability though. Yet in another case altogether, C++/Native is the only way to go. You need absolutely time critical information. You don't really want your missile guidance software pausing for a garbage collection (I know, not a GUI, but it's just an example!) To say that any method... "Give me an interpreter or give me death!" may be stretching things a little far. -----Original Message----- From: tclug-list-bounces at mn-linux.org [mailto:tclug-list-bounces at mn-linux.org] On Behalf Of rpgoldman at real-time.com Sent: Tuesday, August 03, 2004 3:40 PM To: michaelb at real-time.com Cc: tclug-list Subject: Re: [TCLUG] Gui development on Linux >>>>> "MikeB" == michaelb <michaelb at real-time.com> writes: >> 1. Development is every bit as nitpicky and time-consuming as C++. >> Give me an interpreter or give me death! >> >> 2. Pig slow. >> >> 3. Write once, run everywhere. After you've installed about >> forty-two versions of the JVM and jar files that work with your >> app, because Sun and everybody else change the libraries every >> twenty minutes. Now let me see, does that run on 1.4.2 or only >> 1.3.1? Oh, you developed it to be portable with a PDA, so it >> needs 1.1.8? AAAACK. MikeB> I've done as much C/C++ development as Java development over the last decade MikeB> and I completely disagree with all three of these points, but I feel it would MikeB> be a waste of effort to argue. MikeB> Let me switch subjects instead, why is a negative attitude MikeB> towards Java so prevalent on this list? Java is backed by MikeB> a UNIX vendor, it is a direct competitor to Microsoft's MikeB> development platforms, and there are zillions of Open MikeB> Source Java projects. It surprises me that the technology MikeB> doesn't get welcomed with open arms here. Well, I'm not sure how to answer your question, since I gave three reasons already! Java's portability seems to me to be oversold; at any rate, as a USER of apps, I hate apps written in Java. At worst, it's a pain to get them working because the environment isn't as standard as it should be. At best, they always seem to be ugly as sin, because Java isn't successful in papering over the differences in appearance across multiple platforms. As a developer, I don't like Java because it seems to me to hit a low point in the tradeoff curve between interpreted and compiled languages (rigid like compiled, yet slow) and between high-level and low-level languages (OK, so it has garbage collection, but I still have to interact with far too many objects to do even the simplest things). R _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota Help beta test TCLUG's potential new home: http://plone.mn-linux.org Got pictures for TCLUG? Beta test http://plone.mn-linux.org/gallery tclug-list at mn-linux.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota Help beta test TCLUG's potential new home: http://plone.mn-linux.org Got pictures for TCLUG? Beta test http://plone.mn-linux.org/gallery tclug-list at mn-linux.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list