2004-06-08 12:00:00
Peering over the fence at the Java crowd
I like to periodically look at what's going on within other developer communities. I obviously spend most of my time in the .NET world, but it is always good to have a broader perspective. It's been a long time since I looked seriously at the Java community. We were very serious about Java once, but that was a long time ago.
- I believe strongly that a group's potential is eventually limited by the
strength of its leadership. I'm an outsider, but it still looks to me
like the leadership in the Java world is Fouled Up Beyond ALL
Recognition. Java ISVs don't know whether to listen to Mom or Dad. Everybody knows IBM should just buy
Sun and clean up the mess. When are they going to do it?
- I downloaded Eclipse
yesterday. At first I was shocked when I saw the download is 84
MB. Then I realized that's about four percent of the size of Visual
Studio. I gotta recalibrate. I think I'm several years behind the
curve in the way I think about the size of apps.
- It's really cool that one of the leading Java IDEs is made by a small ISV.
- It looks like weblogs have some real traction in the Java world.
Neato. I've subscribed to a few.
- It is interesting to note that there are Java user groups. However, there
seems to be something missing when I compare this to INETA. Passion, perhaps?
- Maybe this perspective is outdated, but I still think of Java as being
strong on the server and lame on the desktop. SWT looks like the right
kind of answer. Does wx4j have any
traction in the Java world? I love cross-platform development, so I've
always wished I had a problem for which wxWidgets could be the solution.
- I remember the JClass library from KL Group. Oops, I see they're now called Sitraka. Oops, I see they're now called Quest Software, apparently by way of an acquisition.
I wish I was going to JavaOne at
the end of this month. There's nothing like a trade show as a way to take
the pulse of a developer community. In the past, this event has drawn
around 25,000 attendees. That's over twice the size of
Tech-Ed!