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You can have options and have good default values for those options. Good default values are those that are reasonable for most people most of the time such tha

You can have options and have good default values for those options. Good default values are those that are reasonable for most people most of the time such that they don't need to be (or hire) domain experts to properly configure their tool. My opinion of a bad default would include a language toolchain which defaults to dynamic linking and requires one to opt into static linking (Java, Python, JS, etc, etc, etc). Worse than that is an anorexic toolchain that has no defaults whatsoever and requires you to pass every little detail directly to the compiler--bonus points if your language has a massive ecosystem of competing tools which are meant to manage these sorts of details for you but utterly and uniformly fail to do so (looking at you, C/C++).

simion314 8y ago
So the JVM run-time is installed and used by average people, so the defaults should be set for this people that install Java to run a desktop app IMO, the developers that want extra performance should read the manual and configure things.
- weberc2 8y ago
  I’ve never heard of a runtime that forces a dichotomy between end-user- and developer-friendliness (putting aside for the moment that end users are famously annoyed by the Java runtime). Rust, Go, etc don’t have runtimes which force a choice between end-users and developers...
  - simion314 8y ago
    JVM can be used for Desktop, server and in the past applets , it would be impossible to find a configuration that is optimal for all applications, so competent developers would tweak the defaults or use different deployment methods like AOT compilation or bundle your own JVM , is your problem that JVM is used in so many different places that different algorithms, runtimes and optimization were created for it ? Your examples of Go and Rust are of languages that are so far not been used in such diverse places, there are no good alternative compilers but something like Python has such a diversity of runtimes.

simion314 8y ago

So the JVM run-time is installed and used by average people, so the defaults should be set for this people that install Java to run a desktop app IMO, the developers that want extra performance should read the manual and configure things.

weberc2 8y ago
I’ve never heard of a runtime that forces a dichotomy between end-user- and developer-friendliness (putting aside for the moment that end users are famously annoyed by the Java runtime). Rust, Go, etc don’t have runtimes which force a choice between end-users and developers...
- simion314 8y ago
  JVM can be used for Desktop, server and in the past applets , it would be impossible to find a configuration that is optimal for all applications, so competent developers would tweak the defaults or use different deployment methods like AOT compilation or bundle your own JVM , is your problem that JVM is used in so many different places that different algorithms, runtimes and optimization were created for it ? Your examples of Go and Rust are of languages that are so far not been used in such diverse places, there are no good alternative compilers but something like Python has such a diversity of runtimes.