Super Volatile

Krzysztof Szafranek's link blog

Hi, I'm Krzysztof and I make websites.
When I'm not making websites, I read these.
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May 6, 2012 / 1:17am

Java creator James Gosling: 'Google totally slimed Sun'

In his testimony last week, Schwartz explained his "grit our teeth" strategy after Android had its public debut as an incompatible variant of Sun's Java. "We saw a handset bypass our brand and licensing restrictions...we decided to grit our teeth and support it so anyone supporting it would see us as part of the value chain," he said. Apparently, continuing to seek a way to work with Google -- to turn lemons into lemonade, as Gosling wrote -- was preferable to engaging in a costly lawsuit.
more on news.cnet.com

The sad patent dance over Sun's grave. In retrospective, Sun under Schwartz's leadership looks like a somehow idealistic company. That made the demise inevitable.

Filed under: google   java   oracle   sun  
 
Apr 9, 2012 / 2:44pm

Spring and Maven reduce feedback

So as I sat there today for several minutes watching maven download jars, I realised I want the pain that its shielding me from back in my face. Don’t medicate me away from pain with these abstractions. In the human body pain is feedback calling attention to something that needs to be fixed. The wise response is to pay attention, not to medicate. So this is why I am against maven and spring and the like. They attempt to cover over things that I want direct contact with, things that I want to feel, things that give me feedback. If my app is hard to configure, I want the feedback. If my app is a 50MB war with a ton of dependencies, I want the feedback.
more on softwareconfidence.com

Experiencing the pain of development makes sense only if something will be done about it, otherwise it's just masochism.

Filed under: java   software development  
 
Jul 17, 2011 / 3:02pm

Stevey's Blog Rants: Execution in the Kingdom of Nouns

Classes are really the only modeling tool Java provides you. So whenever a new idea occurs to you, you have to sculpt it or wrap it or smash at it until it becomes a thing, even if it began life as an action, a process, or any other non-"thing" concept.

I've really come around to what Perl folks were telling me 8 or 9 years ago: "Dude, not everything is an object."

more on steve-yegge.blogspot.com

Steve Yegge's old rant on how programming languages shape the way we think about the problems.

Filed under: java   programming  
 
Jan 29, 2011 / 2:54pm

How (not) to write Factorial in Java.

So please, do us all a favor: if you have the urge to add complexity because “someday we’ll need it, I just know it!”, or because “it’s not sufficiently flexible enough” or “we need reusability in our code” or (God help us!) because it’s “cool”–just go home early.
more on chaosinmotion.com

Fantastic article on overengineering, featuring idiomatic Java programming style.

Filed under: java   programming  
 
Nov 11, 2010 / 12:19am

Apache declares war on Oracle over Java

Charging that Oracle has willfully disregarded the licensing terms for its own Java technology, the Apache Software Foundation has called upon other members of the Java Community Process (JCP) to vote against the next proposed version of the language, should Oracle continue to impose restrictions on open-source Java use.
more on itworld.com

The lost war on Java continues. "Lost" because I see nobody as a winner in the end here.

Filed under: java   oracle  
 
Oct 29, 2010 / 11:14pm

shoes[1].drop();

Apple has nothing to earn and everything to lose by open-sourcing its JDK, so don’t hold your breath.
more on subfurther.com

Apple discontinuous development of Java Virtual Machine for Mac, effectively killing Java on this platform.

Filed under: java   mac  
 
Oct 8, 2010 / 4:10pm

Java Build Systems: Make vs. Ant vs. Maven

Maven’s philosophy is convention over configuration. So far so good. But Maven uses XML too, so it comes with all of the problems inherent in that choice. In fact, Maven completely ignores all of the pain points created by Ant, and aims to solve a completely different problem.
more on grok-code.com

What's wrong with Maven. And Ant, if anybody still cares.

Filed under: build tools   java   programming  
 
Aug 27, 2010 / 9:58pm

An update on JavaOne

Like many of you, every year we look forward to the workshops, conferences and events related to open source software. In our view, these are among the best ways we can engage the community, by sharing our experiences and learning from yours. So we’re sad to announce that we won't be able to present at JavaOne this year. We wish that we could, but Oracle’s recent lawsuit against Google and open source has made it impossible for us to freely share our thoughts about the future of Java and open source generally.
more on googlecode.blogspot.com

Oracle's efforts to kill Java are fruitful indeed.

Filed under: google   java   oracle  
 
Aug 25, 2010 / 10:56pm

Some more comments...

Lightning might strike and they might live up to their 2007 commitment to create an independent Java foundation. I'm not holding my breath, but if enough customers rose up in revolt, it could actually happen. But it would require Oracle customers to do this, since the only thing that Oracle pays attention to is money, and that's what customers hand over to Oracle.
more on nighthacks.org

Java creator replies to comments on recent Oracle lawsuit.

Filed under: java   oracle  
 
Aug 22, 2010 / 2:26pm

Why software patents are a joke, literally

In my last article, I mentioned that a patent from Gosling was one of seven cited in Oracle’s lawsuit. These patents are among those that Oracle acquired when they bought Sun earlier this year. James isn’t saying where these entries rated on the “goofy patent” scale, if at all. But another former Sun employee, Charles Nutter, has written a more detailed analysis. When considering whether or not the suit has merit, he states:

The collection of patents specified by the suit seems pretty laughable to me.

more on zdnet.com

In other words, Oracle just wanted to exploit these Java patents, regardless of their actual merit.

Filed under: google   java   oracle   patents