Re: What makes Java so special?

Buck (et al),

In a message dated 97-11-19 03:37:49 EST, you write:

> >If what you want is to implement AS/400 side applications without data
>  >queues, go ahead! They will port to Unix..
>  
>  That's the idea...  Design the client once, test it once, debug it once
>  and use it against what ever server my company owns.  
>  
>  I'm going through all this because midrangers have spent untold
>  hours debating the relative performance merits of Z-ADD vs SUB.
>  Midrangers who write "standard" portable Java that talks to their
>  AS/400 will not sit idly by when the performance of the application
>  is... less than optimal.  They will certainly optimise for speed,
>  and when that happens, their code will no longer be able to talk to
>  any other servers.
>  
>  This may not be important to some people, who will only develop
>  Java clients to talk exclusively to an AS/400 server, but it's a
>  show stopper for those developers who want to actually use Java
>  across multiple platforms (and have acceptable performance.)

Am I just missing something here?  I thought that the whole reason behind
"object orientation" was that the application wouldn't be tied to a specific
platform.  For example, I would think that your display form would call a
database server program in order to access the data on box "X".  In turn, I
would think that you would have a "generic" version of the database server
program that could access anything, regardless of "box".  I would also think
that the "winners" in this fight would have "platform optimized" database
servers (of the same name as their "generic" counterparts) that could be
installed in place of the "generic" ones when a specific server was to be
targeted.  Forget the fallacy of ODBC, just run whatever works best on a
given platform.  Is this wrong?

TIA,

Dean Asmussen
Enterprise Systems Consulting, Inc.
Fuquay-Varina, NC  USA
E-Mail:  DAsmussen@aol.com

"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please
everybody." -- Bill Cosby
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