[6314] in java-interest
Re: Symantec Cafe vs. Borland 5.0 development
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (David Rothwell)
Thu Mar 28 19:17:35 1996
Date: Fri, 22 Mar 1996 20:21:10 +1100
Reply-To: Java Interest <JAVA-INTEREST@JAVASOFT.COM>
From: David Rothwell <davidr@MAGNA.COM.AU>
To: Multiple recipients of list JAVA-INTEREST
<JAVA-INTEREST@JAVASOFT.COM>
>I am trying to decide between the Symantec and Borland Java options.
I can't comment on Borland's Java offering (as far as I know Latte isn't
available yet) and the add-in for Borland 5.0 seems like an interim
solution, however I can offer some comments on Cafe.
My organisation (a large investment bank) has been using several copies of
Cafe since the day it was released (last week). We are using it in two
different ways - both with great results.
One project is using Cafe to write a Java applet for our web-site.
The other project is using Cafe and Java as a prototyping tool for some
enterprise object design patterns. Java is very productive in this role.
Cafe works basically to spec. There are a few annoying problems we have
encountered (and have posted to Symantec's compuserve support forum). The
most annoying are:
- the debugger sometimes fails to start correctly (generally to do with
using packages)
- the (very) fast Symantec compiler sometimes causes an access violation
if you muck up the syntax in certain ways (seems to be around
static methods). Once you fix the syntax it's great. Generally the
Symantec compiler is lightning fast and generates equivalent code
to the Sun version. Cafe allows you to easily switch between their
compiler and Sun's.
- we are using long file names and we have problems with projects
recognising mixed case names (although if you add the files to the
project manually - ie retype the names all works fine).
None of these problems is anything more than annoying. The environment is
still usable.
On the positive side everyone of our developers that has used Symantec's
Cafe IDE finds it superior than anything they have used before in C++ (up
till MS Visual C++ version 4 studio). The IDE is very well thought out and
intuitive. I am confident that the rough edges will be taken away real soon
- it is 1.0 after all.
The download is 12Mb from Symantec's site. It is a secure site and you might
have to access it from outside of your firewall (most firewalls don't allow
the reverse authentication required). Symantec also have a CD offering.
I have been using Java with a customisable text editor and nicely set-up
environment for about a year. It took me 2 hours before I was hooked on Cafe!
I have also looked at the latest version of OEW (0.9.2). At the moment I
would have trouble finding where OEW is superior to Cafe.
On the feature side: The only major missing feature we have identified so
far is the ability to add our own visual controls to the Cafe Studio. There
are some general facilities like Java support for OLE automation and COM
(both as client and server) that aren't really Cafe's problem but which I
would love to have availble ASAP.
If you have any specific questions I would be happy to help,
David
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