JAVA (was: Re: "stable" platforms)

Chris,

In a message dated 98-03-24 11:45:58 EST, you write:

<<HUGE snip>>
> Please try and understand how frustrated I get when I see this statement.
>  It isn't just you, it is the vast majority of the AS/400 community which
>  has failed to pay attention to what Java means to us. IBM has been trying
>  to give you a graphic workstation which makes the applications served by
>  the AS/400 (like Notes, web pages, Word Pro, etc.) a part of your desktop.
>  But instead of identifying with the direction IBM is taking and why, we
>  see comments about "language of the month" and "Gee, just like SAA." 
>  
>  This myopia is what allows MS to evolve the market. If people looked two
>  moves deep they might see where they are losing.

Man, it has _GOTTA_ be cold down there ;-)!  Once again, I could not possibly
agree more with Chris.  We've got one vendor that was late to the game with
new technology and is trying to boost its quarterly results by joining with
Micro$oft, and another that cannot _STAND_ to not be in charge of "The Road
Ahead" -- _both_ trashing a technology that could eliminate the ongoing
shortage of IS talent in the process.  The aforementioned shortage is possibly
the greatest challenge facing all of us today.

I'd certainly be interested in seeing the licensing agreements that caused all
these problems between Sun, Micro$oft, and HP.  I somehow doubt that the DOJ
would find the disparity to be as heinous as Micro$oft and HP claim them to be
-- _BUT_, it's not a crime to refuse to sign a contract.  However, I would
think that it _should_ be a crime to purport to support a language that is
bastardized from its original form.  Of course, this has obviously not been a
problem in the OS arena when it comes to UNIX.  I think that M$ is trying to
capitalize on the "split decision" over the cable box deal.

Think about it, someone arbitrarily decides that "A car red stop sign ran on
afternoon sunny" is good English syntax.  While the literal translation from
many other languages would be correct, _NOBODY_ would ever claim that it was a
proper English sentence.  Yet _EVERY SINGLE_ computer languange seems to
undergo a similar mutation per platform, and nobody thinks anything about it.
I _would_ suggest a standards organization, but those are _SO_ slow to react
(can you say IEEE or CORBA, I knew you could!) as to be completely worthless.

Sun itself is not entirely without blame here.  They should place JAVA in the
public domain, and help establish a board of major software/hardware
manufacturers to oversee the direction of the language IMO.  Forget the
profits, think about the good of the industry as a whole.  But, I still don't
think that Sun has tried to hold M$ or HP hostage over this -- I just think
that M$ cannot _STAND_ to have _ANYONE_ else dictate to them, and that HP
wants to associate itself with Micro$oft because it really doesn't have
anything happening outside of the printer arena.  Geeze, if _IBM_ agreed to
the deal, how bad can it be?  Were a _TRUE_ platform-independent version of
JAVA to come to fruition, IBM is already ahead of both HP and DEC (in fact,
I'd expect a DEC announcement soon supporting the M$ standard to bolster
Compaq).  Lunacy, sheer lunacy.

I wish that this were like government, where you could write your
representative to tell him/her what an idiot you thought they were on this
issue.  Unfortunately, M$, HP, and DEC representatives wouldn't care what a
bunch of AS/400 people thought.  Only letters from "their own constituents"
would matter, and I'm sure that the latter are as complacent on this subject
as we are.  I was both discouraged and encouraged by the ComputerWorld article
a couple of weeks ago stating that many people are giving  up on JAVA merely
because the "platform independence" (their primary reason for their choice of
JAVA) seemed to be going away.  On the one hand, JAVA may die as M$ wishes.
On the other, the backlash may encourage a JAVA standard that the "prima
donnas" can live with.  One would be a shame, and the other completely
unnecessary if vendors would act responsibly, IMO.

Regards,

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

"To be, rather than to seem." -- North Carolina State Motto
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