Some time ago, Carlos Perez blogged on the Thinking Styles appropriate for different programming languages. His labelling of “Idealist” for the Java programming language is spot on.
In an ideal world, Java is the best possible language for solving any given problem. Java programmers like to live in an ideal world, so they pretend that Java is the best possible language to solve any problem.
I’m in two minds about this.
With my architect’s hat on, I can say that Java is not a bad answer to almost any commercial programming question. There is a market surplus of Java programmers, loads of (open-source and vendor-supplied) tools, stores full of good books and senior management doesn’t question the technology. In this light, the idealism around Java is a plus.
With my programmers hat on, however, the best I can say is that Java is a better answer than C++ to almost any commercial programming question. Java’s biggest flaw is that it takes such a long time to implement even the simplest functionality. Java Idealism rules out the possiblity of using any other technology.
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