Will GPL Java eat into Python marketshare?

[Dan Lenski]

walterbyrd wrote:
> Some think it will.
>
> Up untill now, Java has never been standard across different versions
> of Linux and Unix. Some think that is one reason that some developers
> have avoided Java in favor of Python. Now that Java has been GPL'd that
> might change.
>
> IMO: it won't make much difference. But I don't really know.

I don't think so.  Java and Python don't really belong to the same
"class" of programming languages:

C++, Java: strongly typed, statically typed object-oriented programming
languages... minimal runtime means that these languages can be compiled
to native executables easily (yes, Java can now with things like GCJ
and appropriate libraries)

Python, Perl, Ruby: dynamically typed object-oriented programming
languages... lots of runtime intelligence allows you to do things like
create a new class or function at runtime, or look up a symbol based on
a string of its name, or execute a string containing source code (these
things make the language more flexible but pretty hard to compile to
native code without embedding an interpreter)

The "mindset" required to program effectively in C++ or Java is very
different from that required to program effectively in Python or Perl,
in a way that's quite separate from the syntactical distinctions
between these languages... I think most programmers settle comfortably
into one mindset that fits best with the tasks they do, and try not to
move outside of it.

The ranks of C++ programmers have already been diminished by many of
them jumping to Java, since it offers less complex syntax and better
cross-platform support.  I expect that GPL'ed Java will accelerate the
decline of C++.  But I don't see Java competing directly with Python...

Dan