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Re: larger issue (Re: Linux install misses Tk)
On Thu, Jan 15, 1998 at 12:15:54PM -0800, Keith Edwards wrote:
> Seth M. Landsman writes:
> > *WHY* would writing java conduits be easier? *WHAT* would make
> > them easier? Perl is an excellent and complete language. Java is an
> > excellent (and incomplete, compared to perl :)) language (the testbed for
> > my dissertation is written in java). However, we're not using graphics.
> > We're not using low level sockets. We are doing non-native database
> > processing and dealing with lots of text and string processing. This is
> > *NOT* something java handles natively.
>
> *WHY* are you assuming that because some string functions are
> implemented in Java rather than C that this is bad? *WHAT* could
> possibly matter about how the text processing is implemented? *WHAT*
> is the matter with simply plugging in a reasonable regular
> expression matcher and a JIT to speed things along?
>
> Despite the fact that I'd love a PilotManager-like thingy written in
> Java, I'm actually pretty happy with the current system. It works on
> my platform (Solaris), and works well. I don't think the expense in
> time required to port to Java is *necessarily* worth giving up other
> things (more conduits, or short-term stability, for example). I
> believe that these pragmatic issues are valid arguments against
> reimplementing in Java.
>
> It's just that I don't happen to believe your claim that because Java
> doesn't "natively" implement text processing (whatever that means to
> you) that it's a shut and dried case.
REs do not make a text processing language (compare C to sed and
awk). tied hashes, list contexts and the like make perl more suitable
than java (or C or Eiffel or Cobol, etc, just to make this no longer Perl
vs. Java :)) for this kind of task.
Regardless, my point isn't that you can't do this in java, my
point is one of *why do this in java when it is already perfectly happily
implemented in perl/tk*.
I'm not looking for reasons why java is as good a language to do
this in, but reasons why java is so overwhelmingly better that we should
give up the time and effort already invested into this thing so that we
can have a java version.
Grok?
-Seth
--
"It is by will alone I set my mind in motion"
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