[1224] in java-interest
Re: The future of Java
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Robert O'Callahan)
Sat Aug 26 18:46:19 1995
Date: Sat, 26 Aug 1995 15:36:02 -0400
To: java-interest@java.sun.com
From: "Robert O'Callahan" <roc+@cs.cmu.edu>
Regarding an OS written in Java,
Philip Brown wrote:
>Why do this? This seems like a "fun project".. but I don't think there
>would be any GAIN to this.
Sure there is. You can put untrusted code behind the kernel barrier and
because Java is safe, you don't sacrifice stability. This means you can get
much better performance. See the SPIN project at U. Washington - they use
Modula-3. Let me also put in a plug for our CMU prof. Lucco's "software
fault isolation", which patches C binaries to make them safe, and can be
used in a similar way.
Regarding NT Alpha3 being released,
I'm glad they put in true-colour compatibility, but it seems like other bugs
I reported haven't been fixed. The constant 100% CPU utilization is a tad
annoying, and sockets still fail to close - disaster!
Regarding Microsoft,
Jeffrey Olson <jeffrey@InternetOne.COM> waxed lyrical:
> Who cares if Blackbird integrates all of the crappy monolithic
>software from Microsoft --integrates those clunky "pigs of code" to MSN
>and Gate's "big-brother" snooper services. Maybe the legions of dolts who
>have blindly supported DOS and the various win-doze mutations will get
>out onto the net and see that there is a vibrant culture of computer
>users, makers, programmers..etc. that have rejected their backwards-
>compatable shackles long ago. True competition creates superior products,
>ones that people will support whole-heartedly. A Microsoft world would
>be very small and soft indeed. Rather, with foundations like java and
>open-doc... the future will see people creating and sharing tools of
>their own creation - on a global-web "non-platform" that is more like the
>basis of a language - not a corporate-owned product/prison. The need for
>a "platform" is becoming extinct.. only open protocols, languages and
>minds are required. The continuing usage of closed languages like
>visual basic by a few unimaginative serfs is a waste of time for everyone.
Stop dropping acid and climb down from the ceiling :-). A crusade against
Microsoft is all very well, but don't you dare sacrifice Java to it.
There's room enough for Java to survive in the Windows world, and I think
Sun have recognised this by making it a key target platform. In particular
I think it'd be very interesting to see how Java plays with COM, perhaps
making it an alternative to VB.
By the way, if VB is used by "a few unimaginative serfs", why is it the
hottest selling development tool on the face of the earth, and why is
everyone trying to clone it? And the line about "backwards-compatible
shackles" makes me want to laugh hard ... as if the net culture wasn't based
on Unix ...
Rob
[Robert O'Callahan (roc+@cs.cmu.edu) 1st year CMU SCS PhD
Home page: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~roc
"Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to
be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love."
- From A Prayer of St Francis]
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