Re: Gnome Desktop Language

[Jamie McCracken <jamiemcc blueyonder co uk>]

On Thu, 2004-12-09 at 15:06 +0100, Michael Anckaert wrote:
> Hello all,
> I'm new to this list, just subscribed today. I've been using gnome for
> a long time now, started with v1.4.
> As you may have figured out, this mail is about a Gnome desktop language.
> 
> After reading an (old) article on zdnet.co.uk, I heard about this
> subject and decided to see how this discussion has evolved in the
> Gnome community.
> 
> Unfortunately, this is the only thread I found in the archive. 
> http://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2004-March/msg00593.html
> 
> My personal favorite is Java. I've been programming java for a year or
> so and have really grown to like it.Mono isn't really a candidate for
> me, as it's to much a M$ product.

Well java and mono are just as bas as each other in that respect as both
of them are dominated by large suspect companies.

> 
> In the thread I read in the archives, Java isn't seen as a candidate.
> I think this isn't true. Java is a very good candidate to become the
> official Gnome Desktop Language.

I doubt that - tying ourselves to one language is risky and Java isn't
exactly the nicest or easiest language to use. There are also big
question marks over both performance and efficiency (memory usage) so we
would need an OSS kick arse AOT or JIT

> Instead of waiting for Sun or IBM to release their JDK under an oss
> license, the Gnome community should contact Sun or IBM and try to
> convice them to release Java or the JDK under an oss license.
> Anyone with common sence should realise that incoporating java into
> Gnome can only be a good thing. For both the Java and Gnome community.

Java already has bindings for Gnome and yes thats a good thing.


> As things are going, Java will be dead in a couple of years and .Net
> will controll most of the software around.

I see it as the other way around. .net is unlikely to make an impact
there in web services as Java is very much entrenched. Also the desktop
performance of .net is pretty poor especially start up time, excessive
memory consumption and of course you have to distribute a 20mb+
framework just so that your .Net apps work on all ms platforms.

> Using Java as the Gnome desktop language can change this. It will make
> Gnome development more accisible to others, thus creating more
> applications for Gnome and increasing the use of Java.

no more than at present cause we already have java bindings.

> 
> As said before, Mono isn't really a candidate for me. I think that
> there is to many risc that Microsoft will slow down or halt Mono (and
> Gnome) development with lawsuits and such. I haven't read much about
> the subject so I can't really give valid reasons/facts for this.

IMHO the legal crap is just FUD - there are no patents that threaten
Mono - its all a hypothetical pipedream by those who dont want to see
mono make a mark on linux.

Mono is a good candidate for Gnome because you can run Java on it as
well as C# and VB.net. However I doubt it will ever make it due to
strong resistance and also there are much better alternatives especially
on windows (cf Delphi) that give you component based RAD without all the
Garbage Collection and framework crap which mar the performance,
efficiency and distribution of Java/.net/Mono apps.


jamie

> 
> Well, this were just my two cents. 
> I hope to hear what you think about it.
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