Forum OpenACS Q&A: Response to A Technical Paper on Java

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Posted by Michael Feldstein on
Ben, I found your comment at the end of the draft regarding the similarities between the OpenACS Tcl/Java relationship and Microsoft's VB/C# relationship to be particularly compelling from a marketing perspective. In fact, it's compelling enough that perhaps you ought to consider standing your whole line of argument on it's head. With this current draft, the one thing people will probably remember is that you don't like Java for the web. But that's not really the best message, IMHO. The best message is that, by using a hammer for nails and  a screwdriver for screws, the OpenACS approach has many of the nifty characteristics that MSFT is building into .NET while maintaining openness. Rather than spending most of your rhetorical energy defending the OpenACS team's decision not to convert to Java, perhaps the paper should start with the "two great tastes that taste great together" theme right off the bat.

Also, I wonder if it might be helpful for you to illustrate your points about Java's weaknesses relative to Tcl with some code examples. Now, personally, as a non-programmer, I always found this technique to be somewhat intimidating when reading Philip's work. However, I suspect it would be helpful for at least one of the audiences that really matter and, since your point usually is to show how messy Java can be, even non-programmers can see the difference between one or two lines of Tcl and six or eight lines of Java. As a compromise, you might consider adding hyperlinks that pop up new windows with the code examples. That way people who want to see them can while people who don't can ignore them.

Good work.