Re^2: Whither scripting? Will scripting wither?

Add to that key extensions like Hibernate, Jakarta, and JBoss, and you have an entire system that can be an order of magnitude more complex than Embperl/Apache/MySQL. Is it better? Well, it sure ain't faster, but, yes, it will be more scalable.

Well - I'd have to disagree with that :-) I've had more problems with scaling Java systems than I have with Perl ones. Not that this was due to any deficit in Java per se, just that J2EE led them to modularise the systems in a way that could only scale by buying bigger hardware, rather than more hardware.

It's just as simple to write a scalable and reliable Perl application (or Ruby, or Python, or Lisp, or whatever) as it is to write a Java one. Most of the expertise in producing something reliable and scalable sits in the developers head rather than in the language.

Comment on Re^2: Whither scripting? Will scripting wither?

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Re^3: Whither scripting? Will scripting wither? by samizdat (Vicar) on Feb 03, 2006 at 16:46 UTC
Most of the expertise in producing something reliable and scalable sits in the developers head rather than in the language. Truer words were never spoken, adrianh. That's the crux of the matter. Yes, Perl can be done right and can scale, too. However, it takes a gifted programmer who understands the nature of the environment and the application. Perl can also be done wrong, and that's where I worry. While there's more that has to be learned to do a J2EE scalable app, you can't do it at all until you succeed in putting all the pieces together. It's a PITA, but it does lead to working large applications. I think one gifted programmer would prefer Perl as his vehicle, but if dragonchild's right that those comprise only 1% of our population, lots of companies need an alternate route that isn't so knowledge-critical and is more noob-tolerant. Don Wilde "There's more than one level to any answer."	[reply]
Re^4: Whither scripting? Will scripting wither? by adrianh (Chancellor) on Feb 04, 2006 at 15:27 UTC
While there's more that has to be learned to do a J2EE scalable app, you can't do it at all until you succeed in putting all the pieces together. It's a PITA, but it does lead to working large applications. Yet I somehow encounter bad Java apps that don't scale. So the magic J2EE pixie dust doesn't seem to work any better than the magic Perl pixie dust :-) You seem to be saying that you can give a non-gifted developer (whatever that means) J2EE and they'll have a better chance of producing a good scalable application. That's not been true in my experience.	[reply]