Re:“I am literally losing sleep” over Java (1996)
by ajross on Thursday January 06, 2022 @10:33AM
(#29824803)
> Java isn't sexy, for the most part.
In 1996, Java was pretty darn sexy. Managed runtimes in a high performance[1] language were an absolute revelation at the time.
It's absolutely true that as it evolved, Java grew to embrace the affects and aesthetics of its biggest customers (Enterprise backend coders). And that's not sexy at all. But at the time? We all thought this was going to be the systems language for the next century.
[1] Almost. At the time this email was written, the first JIT JVM was still a few months out from its early beta releases. But Gates could absolutely see where the wind was blowing.
In 1996, Java was pretty darn sexy. Managed runtimes in a high performance[1] language were an absolute revelation at the time.
It's absolutely true that as it evolved, Java grew to embrace the affects and aesthetics of its biggest customers (Enterprise backend coders). And that's not sexy at all. But at the time? We all thought this was going to be the systems language for the next century.
[1] Almost. At the time this email was written, the first JIT JVM was still a few months out from its early beta releases. But Gates could absolutely see where the wind was blowing.