My Library's Bigger than Yours…

Stop it already. Your X is not bigger or better than my Y. Maybe <name withheld> is more useful to you than my implementation. Don't dismiss it because you don't need it today. All of that might change by tomorrow.

Competition is a good thing, it fosters innovation. If you're thinking of, have or are, writing a library which is competing with someone else's. I applaud you. You are being proactive, all the more power to you.

I am so tired of the constant bickering, pseudo-analytical bashing and other pointless variants. Anybody can point out problems, it takes real work and commitment to outline issues and provide viable solutions. Get off your keester and actually do something about it. Talk is cheap, let me see you deliver something for a change.

That being said… Check out Cédric's Canvas and Velocity.

Get Your Version Ready

Subversion 1.0 (svn), the wannabe CVS killer, was finally released late last month. The buzz is on, information is flowing. While version control is a notoriously sore topic with most developers, the consensus seems to be that it is vastly superior to the aging CVS. I haven't made up my mind yet. I need to time to digest it all. I'm a slow (un)learner when it comes to these things.

In the meantime I've been keeping an eye of the Subversion happenings in the Java community. The tools are slowly becoming readily available. There are various Eclipse plugins, Subclipse and Svn4Eclipse. Plugins for IDEA, such as JSVN and Svn-Up. There's even a stand-alone Java/Swing client, Supervision. The IDE integration seems to be a little bonky right now, but it will only get better and better. Right?

Oh J2ME, Where Art Thou?

Is it me, or is the coverage of J2ME slowly fading away when it should be gathering momentum? There are only a handful of dedicated resources out there, and even less Mobile Java bloggers. JDJ even dropped their J2ME section, albeit claiming it is now integrated in a more generic section. Is everybody too busy making money in the mobile industry that nobody has time to share information anymore? I'm puzzled.

JavaOne or JavaNone?

Is JavaOne relevant anymore? Are you expecting to be blown away by some new announcement or technology?

I sure ain't. Maybe I'm too tired of Sun's lack of Java stewardship. Maybe I'm not looking forward to have them dust-off Gosling for another uninspired pep-talk. I want to be excited again… I really do. I'm just not that interested in some marketing topic every single vendor will rally around, desperately trying to grab a little bit of attention. It won't have any relevance a few months down the line. I'm fed up with the politically correct non-committal statements.

Maybe I'm waiting for a charismatic leader, a true Java Evangelist. Someone that would be funny on a late night talk show. Someone I could relate to and yet, sometimes, be furious at. Someone that would not be afraid to market Java, the platform, the technology, to the masses. I think someone needs to rewrite the Sun & Java equation. How about:

E.

This story was published in the March 9, 2004 issue of the Javalobby Newsletter.