[lug] dot-Net & Java (was: Opinions on E*Trade dumping Sun for Linux?)

[Ed Hill]

On Fri, 2002-02-08 at 09:55, Bryan Field-Elliot wrote:
> Looks like I stirred up something here! 

Sure did!  ;-)


> So the issue really is, does .Net lock you in to Microsoft (or is there
> the credible threat of such), in a way which clearly didn't happen with
> Java (and don't think that Sun didn't care to try)? If the answer is
> yes, then to hell with it. I just haven't seen anything yet to really
> support this.

I agree thats the #1 or #2 question with the other big one being "will
it steal mindshare from Java?"

So will .NET lock you in to MS platforms?  I think it will by a
multitude of intentional inconveniences and incompatibilities.  If the
following things prove to be problems:

  - the CLR works best with C#

  - the inter-language bindings support turns out to be of 
      limited utility (eg. can't use all the C++ libs in C++, 
      can't use all the C libs in C, etc.)

  - the .NET libraries work best with C# and they *only* 
      exist in a complete form on windows (just look at the 
      state of the free C++ libs and keep in mind that they 
      *HAD* complete specs to work from while the vast 
      majority of the .NET libraries have not been submitted 
      to any standards group)

  - patents / copyright

then .NET will be of severely limited utility outside Windows.

Remember, a huge part of the utility of Java is the libs provided by
Sun.  If the libs had required reverse-engineering, it would have taken
years longer to see them on Linux or other platforms and they would have
been forever plagued with incompatibilities and chronic tardiness.

Now imagine you have a good Java (C#) compiler and a good JVM (CLR) but
the libraries suck.  What do you have?  A fun research project thats of
extremely limited utility.  This is exactly the same thing that that was
discussed about the Scheme VM that Ralf referenced:

  http://subversion.tigris.org/servlets/ReadMsg?msgId=25556&listName=dev

The wrappers for native libs just didn't materialize.


But Miguel and friends may be able to get the compiler, CLR, and a
sufficiently large set of libs working all while avoiding patent and
other issues.  I do wish them luck.  And I'll play with it when it
reaches a semi-usable state on Linux.

Ed


-- 
Edward H. Hill III, PhD
Post-Doctoral Researcher   |  Email:       ed at eh3.com, ehill at mines.edu
Division of ESE            |  URL:         http://www.eh3.com
Colorado School of Mines   |  Phone:       303-273-3483
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