in reply to Hype Vs Substance (Yet Another Perl Versus Java Node)

While I also deplore the marketing hype that surrounds Java, I don't think your description of the differences between the languages is all that useful. There are some purposes for which Java is a decent tool, and bashing it doesn't really help anyone.

Java ... was invented to kill Windows

Not really -- from what I've heard, it was invented to open up new markets by serving as an operating system for consumer home electronics such as PDAs and set-top boxes. (Search for "Sun Oak Java History" for more details.) The "kill Windows" aspect is a later development.

Java ... was advertised as being 'easier to use', losing many of those 'nasty features' that confounded so many programmers, Pointers, malloc/free, system calls, etc.

As I remember it, the argument was less about "ease of use" and more about reliability and portability. For example, references aren't "easier to use" than pointers, but the argument is that they reduce the amount of time you spend debugging hard-to-understand, hard-to-reproduce error conditions.

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