walterbyrd wrote: > Some think it will. > > Up untill now, Java has never been standard across different versions > of Linux and Unix. Some think that is one reason that some developers > have avoided Java in favor of Python. Now that Java has been GPL'd that > might change. > > IMO: it won't make much difference. But I don't really know.
I don't think so. Java and Python don't really belong to the same "class" of programming languages: C++, Java: strongly typed, statically typed object-oriented programming languages... minimal runtime means that these languages can be compiled to native executables easily (yes, Java can now with things like GCJ and appropriate libraries) Python, Perl, Ruby: dynamically typed object-oriented programming languages... lots of runtime intelligence allows you to do things like create a new class or function at runtime, or look up a symbol based on a string of its name, or execute a string containing source code (these things make the language more flexible but pretty hard to compile to native code without embedding an interpreter) The "mindset" required to program effectively in C++ or Java is very different from that required to program effectively in Python or Perl, in a way that's quite separate from the syntactical distinctions between these languages... I think most programmers settle comfortably into one mindset that fits best with the tasks they do, and try not to move outside of it. The ranks of C++ programmers have already been diminished by many of them jumping to Java, since it offers less complex syntax and better cross-platform support. I expect that GPL'ed Java will accelerate the decline of C++. But I don't see Java competing directly with Python... Dan -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list