the promise of java?

["Rick Baird" <rbbaird@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Pete Hall wrote:
> 
> You could use a text interface for Java. At least it knows about stdout
> and can read ascii files with no problem. The GUI is built into AWT
> though. If you develop using it, the client would need to be capable of
> natively supporting GUI. 

I think native java is supposed to be tuned to run on network stations,
or in any browser.  text could be used as well, but that sorta defeats
the purpose.

> It would of course also need a JVM, which would
> not be platform independent. Given those requirements, if you stick to
> pure Java, bytecodes are platform independent, although bugs are not
> guaranteed to be.

I went to MC's "as/400 as a web server" tech (I use that word lightly)
conference, and one of the speakers was an IBM marketing guy (I don't
recall his name, but I can get it) talking about their plans for java. 
It was remarkable... He began by thoroughly trashing microsoft for
encouraging developers to write their java aps using j-direct and other
"windows only" stuff (active-x, etc.), because it would make the code
proprietary to the wintel world.  He then went on to tout the promise of
java, that you can port it to any platform with a JVM.

Then he suggested you download the "java tools for as/400" and start
writing java aps using them, thereby making them non portable.

My question was, what's the difference between making an application
proprietary to windows, and making it proprietary to the as/400?

He couldn't give me an good answer.   He said something about needing
the tools to do "as400 only" stuff like data queues, and that the tools
were also to "tune" the ap to run better on an as/400.  

It seems to me that while data queues were pretty cool, and useful, that
they are by no means nessesary.  I've used data queues maybe twice in my
15 years in the industry.  If a language is designed to be portable, it
shouldn't allow any platform specific functions.  any performance tuning
or proprietary stuff should all be written into that platforms JVM.

Thoughts?

regards,

rick
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