Tuesday, 20 May 2008
JavaOne 2008: Day Four (Closing Day)
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Much overdue, this final reflection on JavaOne 2008 centers around the Javan Condition.
Unlike what the picture suggests, James Gosling, even though he is the father of Java, never comes across as self-important or irritating. Quite the contrary. There is a genuine warmth and friendliness in his approach, perhaps even parental poise, if you will.
It's a coolness which is very much on its way out in our very own Java community. Java has gone mainstream religious and schisms are abundant: the fragmentation of the landscape is quite profound and discord has turned pandemic. Apart from the obvious power struggles between Sun, IBM and Microsoft, Java aficionado's have become entrenched across tribal boundaries, each tribe toting its own totem JEE application server. These days, even simple projects fail to stay humble, where the fallen out prefer to pursue personal glory on yet-another-me-too road to nowhere. Admittedly, just participating is enough to drive the wedge.
Once, the Java camp prided itself on being to new kid on the block which would solve all the problems which plagued software development thus far known to man. Yet right now, there are already new heathen crusaders just outside the gates of Duke's realm, claiming exactly the same; singling out Java as the real problem. Strangling pet snakes and priceless gem stones are trying to convince us that the coffee ain't what it cranked up to be. Even the noble intent of the language designers to simplify and unify, by stimulating more literary coded programs which would run on many platforms at once, is now deemed a challenge to the proper teaching of computer science principles.
Obviously, JavaOne has become a bit of a misnomer, and it seems JavaTwoMany would be more appropriate. In the spiraling fractal that is fragmentation, its shattering sound can no longer be heard in the noise of the ever expanding long tail. The cocktail effect of the Web 2.oh-no generation drowns out many voices of reason. It was comforting to see, that at the end of the day one man was still left standing.
The photo was taken by Yuichi Sakuraba. It has been made available under Creative Commons license 'Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 Generic'. You can find the original here.
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