Gosling's Infoworld interview [was: Re: Stroustrup's Infoworld interview.]

Joseph R. Kiniry (kiniry@cs.caltech.edu)
Fri, 13 Feb 1998 13:53:02 -0800


I Find Karma writes:
> > We don't have a file system or an implementation of TCP/IP. What we
> > have is interfaces to that. If you're a developer, what you see is the
> > interfaces. You don't care what's on the other side of the interfaces,
> > so from the point of view of a developer it looks like a platform.
>
> I often care what's on the other side of the interface. Why wouldn't
> most programmers?

Especially when it comes to having to manually deal with things like

System.getProperties().getProperty("file.separator")

all over my code to deal with the triumvirate of platforms.

> The following sounds like something straight out of JoeK's mouth:
>
> > I find it depressing that, as the guy behind Emacs, when it comes to
> > writing an algorithm, Emacs is still the best tool around.

Hey! Look at that! Jim quoted me! <g>

Perhaps someone will finally offer to publish my "Using Emacs as a
Java IDE" now...

> And I think the following oversimplifies the difference between CORBA
> and DCOM:
>
> > InfoWorld: So from your point of view DCOM and CORBA are transport
> > mechanisms?
> >
> > Gosling: I don't care. It's how the bits get across. The CORBA stuff
> > has been around for a long time. Microsoft, for whatever reason,
> > decided to build their own thing that was exactly the same, just built
> > differently.

Sounds like Ron!

Of course, I _WOULDN'T_ say Microsoft's stuff is exactly the same,
just built differently than CORBA.

That's like saying the uber-space-toilet on the Space Shuttle is
exactly the same as a chemical toilet in an AirStream(TM) - they're
exactly the same, just built differently.

*NO*, they are _both_ toilets.

Sure, one costs $10,000,000 bucks, required 1000 people to design,
five years of work to build, and a month of serious training to use
correctly. Then, it's fine.

This, while the other is everywhere: dozens of little white boxes with
doors at every major rock concert and campground in the world. Of
course, that one *ALSO* took $10M and 1000 people to design and build,
everyone uses them differently (and some avoid them entirely,
prefering to nearly burst with their resistence), and *NO ONE*
understands how they really work. Oh, and sometimes they blow up.

<OBREF>It's almost as bad as non-dairy creamers and microwaves.</OBREF>

> What, no mention of HTTP-NG?
> :) Adam

You just did Adam.

Joe

-- 
Joseph R. Kiniry       A1 F9 C5 8C B3 43 54 20 FA 20 63 80 53 C3 6D 85
California Institute of Technology           ID 78860581   ICQ 4344804