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Do you think the "Run anywhere" marketing behind Java is rarely important? Java programs normally sit on a server, or many servers of the same arch. The decen

Do you think the "Run anywhere" marketing behind Java is rarely important? Java programs normally sit on a server, or many servers of the same arch. The decent thing is that someone can build a JVM for a new architecture and lots of /other/ languages that target the JVM work. But this seems different from "my program can runs on lots of architectures".

jacques_chester 6y ago
In the 1990s it looked very much as if desktop and server heterogeneity would be the norm. That you'd pick between alternatives like Solaris on SPARC, HP-UX on PA-RISC, Irix on MIPS, Windows on Alpha / MIPS / x86 / PowerPC, MacOS on PowerPC, OS/2 on PowerPC / x86 etc etc. The designers of Java, as well as software community at large, had dealt with the pain of moving large codebases across platforms and so the WORA promise was very appealing.
- ObscureScience 6y ago
  It would have been cool if Limbo/Dis would had gotten more attention at the time. To me it looks like a more promising base, and was released the same year as Java. I can't at the moment find under what terms it was released back then, but it's free software now.
tablespoon 6y ago
> Java programs normally sit on a server, or many servers of the same arch. That's true right now, but it wasn't true in the recent past (SPARC) and it might not be true in the near future (ARM). Early in my career I was on a team that migrated our Java application from elderly Sun boxes to newer x86 hardware, and it was relatively painless. There's a good chance we'll eventually to the same from x86 to ARM. Most developers will also continue develop on x86 for the foreseeable future.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
kazinator 6y ago
> Java programs normally sit on a server Or an Android smartphone or media streamer (Android TV). However, those programs won't run anywhere; they need Android. Java has turned into C. Java programs need a platform-specific set of libraries just like C needs POSIX, or Win32, or VXWorks or ThreadX or whatever. This is pretty much inescapable.
- kaba0 6y ago
  Java apps are pure Java for the most part, they basically contain no native code, unless for some very specific OS API call (in which case portability is a non-goal) — and the JVM will run any class file thrown at it. Android is special because it has many many special APIs, so I don’t see your point. Just look at the (unfortunately not too numerous) desktop java apps. The exact same jar from n years ago will just run on all three main OSs.

jacques_chester 6y ago

In the 1990s it looked very much as if desktop and server heterogeneity would be the norm. That you'd pick between alternatives like Solaris on SPARC, HP-UX on PA-RISC, Irix on MIPS, Windows on Alpha / MIPS / x86 / PowerPC, MacOS on PowerPC, OS/2 on PowerPC / x86 etc etc. The designers of Java, as well as software community at large, had dealt with the pain of moving large codebases across platforms and so the WORA promise was very appealing.

ObscureScience 6y ago
It would have been cool if Limbo/Dis would had gotten more attention at the time. To me it looks like a more promising base, and was released the same year as Java. I can't at the moment find under what terms it was released back then, but it's free software now.

tablespoon 6y ago

> Java programs normally sit on a server, or many servers of the same arch. That's true right now, but it wasn't true in the recent past (SPARC) and it might not be true in the near future (ARM). Early in my career I was on a team that migrated our Java application from elderly Sun boxes to newer x86 hardware, and it was relatively painless. There's a good chance we'll eventually to the same from x86 to ARM. Most developers will also continue develop on x86 for the foreseeable future.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

kazinator 6y ago

> Java programs normally sit on a server Or an Android smartphone or media streamer (Android TV). However, those programs won't run anywhere; they need Android. Java has turned into C. Java programs need a platform-specific set of libraries just like C needs POSIX, or Win32, or VXWorks or ThreadX or whatever. This is pretty much inescapable.

kaba0 6y ago
Java apps are pure Java for the most part, they basically contain no native code, unless for some very specific OS API call (in which case portability is a non-goal) — and the JVM will run any class file thrown at it. Android is special because it has many many special APIs, so I don’t see your point. Just look at the (unfortunately not too numerous) desktop java apps. The exact same jar from n years ago will just run on all three main OSs.