Re: EGL vs. Java

Adam Glauser wrote:

My point is that I don't think "because it is proprietary it is flexible" is a good argument. I can just as easily say "because it is proprietary it could be discontinued at any time". VARPG comes to mind - though I don't know enough about its history to know if it is a perfect example.

Normally I'd let this slide, and I will if you choose to reiterate your points, but I thought I specifically addressed both those issues. First, the evolution of EGL has been much faster than most large-scale open source projects. There's an inertia that takes over OS when it reaches a certain critical mass. As another perfect example, with the RPG editor, you can easily open a second editable pane into the same source member. They've been fighting about that for years in Eclipse, and they still don't have it for Java. So George's LPEX team was indeed faster and more flexible than the entire Eclipse community.

You'll see that even more with the new release of EGL; they're light years beyond just about any other framework out there for Web 2.0 stuff.

As for the second point, comparing VARPG to EGL is comparing apples to aircraft carriers. VARPG is a niche implementation of a niche language (and I say that with love in my heart) with a relatively tiny number of users (basically, bleeding edge midrange developers with big PCs who needed thick client code and didn't want to use VB). EGL, on the other hand, is a much larger cross-platform community, spanning mainframe, midrange and web application developers.

Anyway, we've gotten into opinions, so I'll let you rebut if you choose and then drop it.

Joe