[clug] Why isn't Java popular on the Linux Desktop?

[James Ring]

Hey,

On Sat, Jul 11, 2009 at 7:43 AM, Francis James
Whittle<fudje at grapevine.net.au> wrote:
> My personal feeling is that Java adds another layer of indirection where
> it's not necessary, and without advantages such as run-time compilation.
> A lot of effort goes into cross-platform frameworks for architecture
> compiled languages anyway, so what's the big deal?

This argument tends to come up whenever the abstraction layer is
raised. I'm sure people argued that object oriented programming was an
unnecessary layer of indirection, but I don't think that anybody
seriously argues that it doesn't provide a level of expressiveness
that is so useful in so many applications. Very few people these days
will look at the output of their C compiler to ensure that loop is
completely optimal.

In practice writing cross-platform Java applications is very little
effort compared to the equivalent code in languages like C or C++.
Sometimes you need the lower level because the performance of your
code matters, but most of the time it's important for the code to be
correct and portable and I believe Java is an excellent language
choice here.

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Regards,
James