----- Original Message ----- From: Jonathan Hutchins hutchins@tarcanfel.org Date: Thursday, February 17, 2005 5:21 pm Subject: Re: Java and other environments
On Thursday 17 February 2005 03:42 pm, Jeremy Turner wrote:
On Thu, Feb 17, 2005 at 11:08:53AM -0600, Jonathan Hutchins wrote:
Java is a virtual operating system that can be installed on
top of
other operating systems. As an OS, it's somewhat limited and specialized, but that's what the "Virtual Machine" in java is all about.
I wouldn't call Java an operating system, in the typical sense
of the
word.
I again refer you to the concept of the Java Virtual Machine.
A JVM is an abstraction of an OS, just as an OS is an abstraction of your hardware. To say one is the other makes no sense.
Give me something like HTML that "runs" natively on multiple platforms, that doesn't require me to download and install a
support> > system.
But basically a web browser _is_ a support system.
A browser is an application. Maybe I'm mistaken about this, but having looked at the chore of downloading and installing a JVM/JRE a couple of times, the complexity and sheer size of Java distinguish it from something like Firefox, which can legitimately claim to be an application.
X is an application. (What does size and complexity have to do with it?) Like a JVM, X abstracts part of the OS. Like a JVM, X isn't an OS.
I realise that diversity is part of the evolutionary process, but as an end user I don't want to have to download multiple, redundant scripting systems, especially if they are only available as, or require, a full development environment devoted to them. Gcc, bash, and perl are pretty much standard parts of Linux these days. Ruby, Python, Java, and a host of others are, in my opinion, solutions that have yet to justify themselves by solving a real problem.
They're great for developers, programmers, designers, but not appropriate for end-user land.
The problem with visiting end-user land, is pretty much every end-user has different "real problem[s]".
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