Re: Is it me, or is it the job?

Read up on some of Paul Graham's comments on java. I code java (he doesn't) and I for the most part agree with his quickie assessment. It's a good read:

http://www.paulgraham.com/javacover.html

Java is a language that sucks the life and soul out of you (queue rebuttal from sporty), a language to keep mediocre programmers from doing something dangerous (they bury, omit, or obfuscate powerful features and make what-should-be-the cool-things difficult -- RMI and JNI for instance), and quality programmers from doing something revolutionary. It's a business app language, basically, far from the academic, whiz-bang, or workhorse languages that we love for practical development. Java, essentially, is Cobolish.

Plus you, like I, probably have a job where you can't express creativity ... Java isn't designed by that. You use what Sun gives you, in a nice constrained space. Like VB. I think Perl programmers are drawn to Perl because of the power and fun it provides, and it's hard to find this in other languages. So I post on a Perl forum while I mostly code java. And I need to get out of cube farm ville, I hate it, but at least it payed for my $3000 mountain bike :)

Java is a fad. We only have to wait. Maybe more functional/creative languages will take over.

Comment on Re: Is it me, or is it the job?

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Re: Re: Is it me, or is it the job? by rje (Deacon) on May 17, 2004 at 14:17 UTC
I, too, am a fan of Paul Graham's website (since I never met Mr. Graham, I can't say whether or not I'm a fan of him personally), and have enjoyed reading his non-traditional success story(ies) and opinions. It's plain that Java was designed to encapsulate the developer; it's a blessing and a curse. I like the overall syntax and feel of Java; I hate the way objects seem to get in the way (funny, Smalltalk never seemed to get in the way...). After a few years of consideration, I have to agree that Java is simply a business-app language. It is a vast improvement over COBOL, but essentially in the same genre. I suspect that to get a more interesting job, I have to get out of the business app business.	[reply]
Re: Re: Is it me, or is it the job? by Scarborough (Hermit) on May 18, 2004 at 15:57 UTC
A letter from accross the water I'm not sure if this is good or bad really but I have fallen into Perl as not to many people here in Britain seem to won't to do it. The company I am currently contracted to could only find 3 people in the country with the correct skills to do the job, dispite advertising and using agencies. I really tried hard to get a Java job, as I had spent a long time learning it, and belived it to be the future(I fell for the hype on that one). I'm really enjoying the Perl work but do get a bit frustrated at times. But it seems to be a lucky accident that I get paid for doing Perl especially as a very quick search on a UK site returned 253 jobs needing Perl skills and 50 of those where in London and the South East. Remember Britain is very small update Think about a job in Britain for a while I can recommend it.	[reply]
Re: Re: Is it me, or is it the job? by Wassercrats (Initiate) on May 14, 2004 at 22:39 UTC
It's good to hear you say that Java is a fad because I don't know Java, but there are more Java jobs, and with some of the not-so-good comments I've been hearing about Perl 6, I would recommend that someone learn Java instead of Perl if they had to choose, even if they think they want to do mostly web work. I could imagine people reading the reviews of Perl 6 when it comes out and hearing of the complaints, which are already circulating, and the bugs. People will base their opinion of Perl on Perl 6 and might choose something else. And who knows how Python and others will improve. Perl's future might not be secure.	[reply]


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