C/C++

Originally Posted by Arainach

The main slowdown of Java is the horrendous VMs out there today. If someone could write a good, efficient VM, it'd become the complete industry standard overnight. But that giant level of overhead is what keeps other stuff like C++ and C# going. Heck, I haven't even bothered learning Java yet. I suppose eventually I should.

I'll believe that when I see it. Java is a proprietary dead end. It's C++ with all the good bits stripped out and replaced with junk.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by BlueMikey

C++ has no good "bits". That's what people like about it, it is basically nothing, allowing users to do whatever they want with no protection whatsoever.

I'll agree to that, and it's this functionality that has been removed from Java, which is ringfenced, and protected.

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Java is very important, I think the 3rd most used language (outside of C and C++). Sun, as a caretaker, has gone to vast lengths to improve it, there is one single body to make changes to the language and they never make poor decisions. I think it is still the easiest language to learn (not just the language itself, but it is easy to learn concepts in), so it definitely has its educational purposes.

Proprietary. That's a dirty word in programming circles. I'll agree it has educational value, but I wouldn't use Visual Basic, and I won't use Java. Same reason.

Double Post:

Originally Posted by libc

There exists free (as in free-beer) ports, the most famous one being gcj, but I think it is still incomplete.

Aye. However, proprietary are the roots of the language, and proprietary are most of the fruitful branches. The free version can't really change that. In truth, I see no reason why it should.

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Java is pretty strong today, with a *lot* of business-critical applications. I'm not expecting it to disappear quickly.

Me either, but I'm also not expecting it to become any more important than it already is. If a genuinely free (and platform-agnostic) language were to launch right now, it would have a good shot, I feel.

There's nowhere I can't reach.