Re: Trend towards platform specific languages

I am an unabashed IBM bigot but just to set the record straight, many people
would say that Microsoft learned their tricks from IBM.  IBM is not a
blushing virgin in this area. 
 
---------------------------------
Booth Martin
http://www.martinvt.com
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-------Original Message-------
 
From: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Date: 10/06/05 12:28:54
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: Trend towards platform specific languages
 
"Shannon O'Donnell" <sodonnell@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
.. . .
> I have to ask....WHY?!? Is it so critical that every
>application be platform agnostic?
.. . .
 
Because before Sun introduced Java, Bill Gates and
Microsloth were very close to world domination with
WinDoze (and with various dirty tricks campaigns connected
therewith), in spite of the fact that it's irredeemably
wasteful of resources.
 
If it hadn't been for Java, Microsloth would have had the
market leverage to grind MacOS, Linux, Unix, and OS/400
into the dust. All of those platforms would probably be as
close to extinction as Digital Research's GEM graphical
user interface (which is practically unheard-of today,
even though it runs circles around WinDoze in terms of
efficiency; I know, because as a Xerox Ventura Publsher
die-hard, I still use a runtime version of GEM with some
regularity).
 
The problem is not the use of platform-independent
languages. If you believed that, you wouldn't be involved
with the AS/400, because the AS/400 is itself a virtual
machine that has been implemented on at least two
radically different hardware platforms. The problem is in
the use of technologies inappropriate to the problem at
hand. Consider spreadsheets, databases, and word
processing: there's no reason in the world why you need a
true GUI for any of these applications. A hardware text
screen is fine for such things, so long as attributes and
cursor addressing are supported, and will do the job much
more efficently. Yet are there any commercial desktop
applications still written for a hardware text screen?
 
Most performance problems that are language-related can be
traced to the use of the wrong language for the job,
period. And that has nothing to do with whether the
language is platform-independent or platform-specific.
 
--
JHHL
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