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I think that very philosophy is the single biggest reason for Java's success. It's "show me where people are actually using this well", not "tell me why people
by WilliamLP 17y ago
I think that very philosophy is the single biggest reason for Java's success. It's "show me where people are actually using this well", not "tell me why people ought to be using this".
If you ask some people what is the practical use of certain concepts you get answers like "Uh, you can't even understand why this is so good, because your brain doesn't work in my language, see the Blub Paradox... But see how nice my factorial function looks!"
Ironically, I think Java is now one of the most used language in academia, which seemed to have been explicitly an "anti-goal".
- bad_user 17y agoIf Java is used a lot in academia is mostly because it is shoved on the throats of students as one of those "real world skills that helps you get a job". Not to say that it doesn't have merits. It's fast enough, it's cross-platform, it has good tools and good libraries. But this wasn't the case until Java 1.4 was released. And its popularity has more to do with Sun's marketing campaign than anything else.
- WilliamLP 17y ago> And its popularity has more to do with Sun's marketing campaign than anything else. If you can do proof by assertion, so can I: Java's popularity has more to do with properties of the language than marketing.
- 10ren 17y agoI think he meant "used by academics in academic research", not "used by students". Both are true.