[OT] Java generics (was: Guido sees the light: PEP 8 updated)

[Tim Delaney]

On 18 April 2016 at 09:30, Chris Angelico <rosuav at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Mon, Apr 18, 2016 at 8:02 AM, Tim Delaney
> <timothy.c.delaney at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I also wouldn't describe Java as a
> > "perfectly good language" - it is at best a compromise language that just
> > happened to be heavily promoted and accepted at the right time.
> >
> > Python is *much* closer to my idea of a perfectly good language.
>
> "Java" was originally four related, but separate, concepts: a source
> language, a bytecode, a sandboxing system, and one other that I can't
> now remember.


I was very specifically referring to Java the language. The JVM is fairly
nice, especially with the recent changes specifically aimed at more easily
supporting dynamic languages.

Speaking of JVM changes - I had to take over support of a chat applet
developed by a contractor built on Java 1.0. We just could not get it to
work reliably (this was for the original Foxtel web site - I remember
trying to keep it up and running while Richard Fidler was doing a promoted
chat session ...). Then Java 1.1 was released and what a huge improvement
that was.

Tim Delaney