I cut my teeth as a Java programmer from the earliest days of Java (pre 1.0). So, I followed Sun quite closely through the years. As I watched the Google I/O keynotes, I was struck by how much Vic Gundotra sounded like a cross between John Gage and Scott McNealy.

Sun, used to make a habit out of cracking one liners about Microsoft. Google has done the same with Apple.

“Sun Is Not Proprietary, Just As IBM Is Not Bankrupt”

Replace IBM with Apple and Sun with Google…sound familiar?

As a I think about it, the comparison does not stop there. Sun stumbled into a fantastic market that was out of it’s core competency. They decided to use their cash cow, hardware, to fund this new business. Google has entered into the phone business. There is money to be made their, but the development and support efforts are largely funded by search revenue. Sound similar?

If you look back in history, Sun released and managed Java as free software (yes it was not open til later). For years, they funded that effort with their hardware business. Eventually, they were…

Anyone know?

There is nothing revolutionary here. Chrome is clearly faster on my macbook pro (i7, ssd hd). The only area where Safari 5 outperformed was in DOM manipulation…which is interesting. This should make it handle some in-application processing faster. Unfortunately, it may not be noticeable because Chrome will do the initial layout and the data processing much faster.

Embedded systems are becoming ever more powerful and affordable. Check out the GuruPlug, which is scheduled for release in a couple of weeks and has amazing specs: Linux 2.6 1.2 GHz ARM processor with 512 MB DRAM 512 MB Flash, Ethernet, WiFi, 2 x USB, Bluetooth, GPIO Low power consumption and small footprint Java and OSGi available from distributor Retail price: US $99 (standard version)

link: The GuruPlug and more: An Embedded Java Update « Across the Universe

Man, this is in the price range to make playing with it fun!

Looks like QT is trying to answer the uncertainty that JavaFX has created for Swing programmers. Specifically, JavaFX is out there and has been named the air apparent to swing. However, JavaFX does not have a full component suite yet (table…cmon guys). So, with people knowing they will need to switch, but having some uncertainty about that switch, folks are a little lost. QT, looks like they are trying to position themselves as a good traditional gui toolkit that can be a refuge for swing programmers that don’t want to move to JavaFX.

Fun and Games

It’s been a while since I looked at it in any depth. However, this time I took the time to look at the trends. Using a simple linear interpolation, it looks as if Java will reach VB’s current level of irrelevance in about 11 years.

Now, VB is not irrelevant, it is still widely used for a large number of purposes. However, it is widely considered to be a dated or legacy language. If you accept that, and oracle does not radically alter the trend, Java will be in the same place in about 2020.

What is more interesting, is that there is not a clear heir apparent. There are several dynamic languages (including php — is that a language or a toolkit?), that have a positive slope. However, none seem to be approaching a breakout that would offset the losses that Java, C, and C++ are having. (I wonder if that represents a diversification among languages or a flaw in the survey.) Anyway, I think it is interesting to look at the trends from a career perspective. It appears that we are in store for a language trend change in…

The recent comments from Steve Jobs regarding Adobe might well be the first sign of a “cold war” between the two companies. Apple would be already preparing and developing applications to compete directly with Adobe’s solutions, leading to open warfare. Cupertino would also be developing a software that could compete with Flash and Dreamweaver, entirely based on HTML 5.0. Beside Aperture X which should be released soon, Apple might also be working to develop a solution similar to Photoshop, a high-end Pro-oriented solution. We do not know further details about those applications being developed as it is either hidden from view or just starting.

link: Hardmac.com : Le “Macbidouille” in English – Apple and Adobe: The Roots and Reasons Behind Today’s Situation

The article goes into great depth about the souring relationship between the two companies and how that has taken place over time. I found myself wondering if that is what happened to Java on the Mac. At one point, Steve embraced Java. He proclaimed that it was going to be a center piece of Apple’s strategy. Given the lack of client side focus (at the…

Hotspot showed the world that there were ways to make non statically compiled languages perform. In fact, Java’s performance these days rivals c++ on a number of metrics for a number of purposes. As a result, we have seen languages like Perl, Javascript, VB, etc all embrace virtual machine execution environments. Now, there is another to add to the list. Little ole PHP is now joining the JIT world.

According to our sources, Facebook has been working on a PHP compiler that will increase speed by around 80% and offer a just-in-time (JIT) compilation engine that will offer a number of advantages. The project is very similar to Google’s Unladen Swallow project, which rebuilt the Python compiler, boosting the speed fivefold and opening the door for multi-language integration.

link: CONFIRMED: Facebook Gets Faster, Debuts Homegrown PHP Compiler

Good for PHP. Many of these language execution environments have a long way to go to catch up to where the JVM is these days, but they are headed in the right direction.…