Java is C++ without the broken glass It's hard to look at a historical success, and determine which attributes caused that success. I agree that the non-produc

Java is C++ without the broken glass It's hard to look at a historical success, and determine which attributes caused that success. I agree that the non-product attributes (tooling, docs, libraries, corporate backing etc) were important. Elsewhere you describe it as "moderately-usable", and I think that implies the key: to compare it with the alternatives, such as C++ and COBOL. That's how market success comes about. It's similar with google: was it "the algorithm"? Or was it honest results, uncluttered, fast?