Re: Y Store /Closures

[Sundar Narasimhan <address@hidden>]

   There's a big difference between having a language that is suitable
   for a task and having a library that is written specifically for
   that task.  Struts and other J2EE tools are written specifically for
   web application development.  That doesn't mean the features of the
   Java language are well suited to solving these problems, it means
   lots of other people have already solved most of them, usually with
   heavyweight frameworks that dictate quite a bit of your application
   structure.  Having a well thought out library made for your specific
   problem domain is almost always going to be as good or better than
   having a language that is appropriate for the domain.

Great, so we agree. I never made a point about Java (the language
(TM)) being the best suited for web apps, and I am not proferring an
argument for it's use (or any other non-dynamic language, btw) OR
trying to convince anyone -- as you seem to be implying below.

In fact, I know that the task is far from being "solved". There are
today a mix of environments/frameworks/tools all offering different
returns for one's time/money investment -- and some are more
satisfying than others along certain dimensions. Am I happy w/ any of
them along ALL dimensions? No.

   It has been said before that the availability of many of these tools
   is the most compelling argument in favor of Java, not the language
   itself.  If we are discussing language features and their
   suitability for certain tasks, saying that the task has already been
   solved so that language must be as good as any other is a pretty
   unconvincing argument.