dambalah

Earlier this month, at Barcamp DC, I talked about using Ruby with Java using JRuby, JSR-223, and the Bean Scripting Framework.

Today, I found this great blog post that describes using the BSF to call Ruby’s ActiveRecord from Java.

I just finished reading Beyond Java – A glimpse at the future of programming languages by Bruce Tate and I really enjoyed the book. I can’t wait to pass it on to friends and co-workers that are Java developers. I think every Java developer should read it.

Unfortunately, it is the kind of book that will be affected by time as the content will not be relevant anymore a few years from now. As a matter of fact, some of the content is already somewhat outdated but the main ideas are still relevant. So if you haven’t read it yet, go get it now and read it. It’s a small book and a quick read.

Bruce Tate believes that Java development has become too complex and that Java lacks some of the features that are desirable in a modern programming language. In his opinion which I share, Java is too verbose: “Even with seasoned developers, it takes a surprising amount of code to get even simple applications off the ground.” (p. 4). With dynamic languages like Ruby or Python, you can see incredible power and productivity very quickly. In addition, Java does not support metaprogramming or continuations natively.

In Chapter 2, entitled ‘The Perfect Storm’, the author does a great job of describing the environment in which Java emerged to become the dominant programming language. For anyone in need of a quick recap of the recent history of programming languages, this chapter is a great read. The next Chapter is a eulogy of Java where the author describes what Java does right and the features and circumstances that makes Java so successful. Bruce Tate then exposes the limits of Java and offers a comprehensive list of rules that the next successful language will need to follow to become the next Java.

Chapter 6 is a quick overview of Ruby that demonstrates that Ruby possesses a lot of the qualities needed to cross the chasm and become the next big programming language, including having a killer application in Rails (which he reviews in Chapter 7). Finally, the next chapter takes a look at continuation servers and uses the Seaside framework written in Smalltalk as an example. To me, this chapter was probably the most interesting in the book. My only introduction to continuation servers before this was when Chad Fowler briefly mentioned them at the Advanced Ruby Studio that I attended last month. It is a fascinating topic and I will definitely do some digging to learn more about them. Maybe I’ll give Seaside a quick try.

The author also mentions a few major (Python, Groovy, .NET) and minor (PHP, Smalltalk, Lisp, Perl) contenders. He thinks that “Perl is too loose and too messy, PHP is too close to the HTML, Lisp is not accessible, and Smalltalk wasn’t Java” (p. 171).

In conclusion, the goal of the book is to warn Java developers that Java is moving away from its base (it’s getting too difficult to solve simple problems in Java) and showing signs of wear. In the meantime, interesting innovations are appearing in other languages so it is time for Java developers to start paying attention to the world outside of Java.