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

[Tom Tromey]

>>>>> "Bryan" == Bryan Field-Elliot <bryan_lists at netmeme.org> writes:

Bryan> A forking away from Microsoft would leave Mono just fine,
Bryan> according to Miguel de Icaza

Bryan> The real point is -- does .Net/CLI one-up Java in any useful
Bryan> and interesting way? And at first glance (and in theory, not
Bryan> necessarily in practice), it appears they have.

These two statements have an interesting tension.  If .NET is "better"
than the JVM, and forking the platform is ok, then why not simply
start with one of the existing free JVMs and add the missing features?
Then you're (in the case of gcj) something like 7 or 8 man-years of
work (aka 400KLOC) ahead of the game.

I think there's something else going on here.  Partly it is that
people want to believe that the platform makes a big difference in
programmer productivity.  This is substantially less true than many
people seem to believe.

Tom