So…here’s a lively discussion about the preview release of Java 1.5 (Tiger). There are many new features, some interesting and useful, and others that some may call syntaxtic sugar. I found the whole discussion interesting because Java is fast becoming M$ bastard brother. Many in the open source community are leary of the langauge, because it is still controlled by Sun, and therefore is a Bad ThingTM. Personally, I think it is a great language for server-side programming–powerful and safe (no icky pointers), and with the introduction of the SWT, it has the potential to move onto the desktop. But so many people think that we should all be programming in Schema, Smalltalk or Eiffel. I’d love to do that, but I’m not in academia, and employers looking specifically for those languages are few and far between. Java is a fine compromise…still very object-oriented, but with enough (some would say too many) libraries to make it attractive to business.
In other news…
I’ve been listening to more pop lately…a quick rundown of what’s been playing:
* Pedro the Lion, especially It’s Hard to Find a Friend. Not David Bazan’s most coherent album thematically, it’s still full of wonderful, truthful songs.
* Bedhead — Transaction De Novo. Lepidoptera is my favorite song, ever. Seb really digs it too.
* Death Cab for Cutie — Various. Really good pop music.
* The Promise Ring — Various.
* Versus — Various.
Posted on 1 June 2003