Novel Thoughts on Scripting and Languages

[Dave Brueck]

On Sun, 12 Jan 2003, James Huang wrote:

> The misconception I had was that at least a portion of people in this
> community are "amphibious" -- Python and Java; if not, then Jython
> would be a strange phenomenon.

Not a misconception (although there is a Jython mailing list too). If
anything, your misconception was about the "why" behind Jython.

> Apparently this is a miserable assumption, because Java seems to be
> beyond just being rejected here.

Well, let's look at a few points from the discussion to date:

- the discussion started as, IMO, a thinly-veiled advertisement
- you haven't used Python enough to really understand its pros/cons, even
though on your website you imply otherwise (by, for example, speaking on
its suitability for various things)
- meanwhile, you have routinely made unsubstatiated assertions about how
wonderful Java is (quote: "Java is unbeatable")
- most of your value proposition has centered on the idea that Judoscript
lets you use Java to solve problems we don't have (because we already have
well-working solutions to those problems)
- many people here have used Java a lot (enough, in fact, to be able to
constrast its strengths and weaknesses) but didn't like it and have
transitioned away from it and are very happy with the decision, so the
idea of doing anything with Java holds little appeal.

Although you surely didn't intend it, the above to me really looks like
flame-bait, so it's kinda neat that the thread stayed mostly tame. I don't
really think that Java is necessarily being "rejected" here, but this _is_
after all a _Python_ newsgroup, so I'm not really sure what sort of
reaction you'd expect from comments like "Java is unbeatable", etc.

Have fun,
Dave