Re:JEP 430: String Templates (Preview) Proposed to Target Ja...
by pron on Saturday March 04, 2023 @09:24AM
(#35020931)
There is no longer any need to download a JDK (which, BTW, also no longer requires any installation) to use Java. Applications are now encouraged to bundle a custom runtime which, thanks to jlink, can be quite small; usually smaller than a Python runtime (~40MB for a runtime suitable to many or most servers).
Re:JEP 430: String Templates (Preview) Proposed to Target Ja...
by Arathorn on Saturday March 04, 2023 @09:31AM
(#35020968)
I know. I’m not sure this was the case in 2014 though when we made the decision to switch to Python.
Re:JEP 430: String Templates (Preview) Proposed to Target Ja...
by pron on Saturday March 04, 2023 @09:35AM
(#35020987)
It wasn't. This was done in 2017-18.
Re:JEP 430: String Templates (Preview) Proposed to Target Ja...
by sitta on Saturday March 04, 2023 @09:12AM
(#35020865)
I think this perfectly demonstrates my point. Thanks for sharing. Java was perceived as "enterprisey and non-open-source-friendly".
It's also interesting to hear that a Java deployment was thought to be more difficult than a Python deployment. My baised opinion is the exact opposite. Java services are generally incredibly simple to run, especially if you make a fat jar executable.
The only reason we switched to Python and Twisted for the first gen Matrix server (synapse) was for rapid prototyping using a platform that we reasoned the open source and selfhosting community would already have installed and be comfortable with. Java felt way too enterprisey and non-open-source-friendly, making quick tweaks to the codebase a huge pain, not to mention the verbosity of the language. The team agreed that expecting casual folks to install and use a JVM just for a chat server would be a major turn-off, and we continue to feel that was the right call.