Java, Netscape, OpenDoc, and Babel

[tcmay@sensemedia.net (Timothy C. May)]

I've been reading up on Java at the Web sites (such as
http://java.sun.com/1.0alpha3/doc/overview/java/index.html) and am awaiting
with bated breath the HotJava browser port for the Mac, to play with.

The "tower of Babel" is getting higher and higher, with Python, TCL,
Safe-TCL, Perl, and the various multimedia languages (Shockwave, Lingo,
ScriptX) all competing for attention.

I guess this is all to the good, and let the best languages and frameworks
prevail.

On a SmalltalkAgents list I am on (I own SmalltalkAgents, a powerful
implementation for the Mac, with a Windows version coming), one poster had
the following to say:

"I am hoping that OpenDoc and specifically CyberDog from Apple provide the
basis for a more rational and open Internet component environment. NetScape
is becoming a kitchen sink app and any solution they create for plug-in
components will set back things when an open industry standard for
components (OpenDoc) is about to be released."

NetScape a kitchen sink? Perhaps, but kitchen sinks have been selling
pretty well for years.

I just picked up a copy of "Pattern Languages of Program Design," edited by
James Coplien (of the well-regarded C++ book) and Douglas Schmidt. This
book has a series of interesting papers on the "design pattern" approach
(as in the book by Erich Gamma et. al.).  The idea behind "pattern
languages," seen by some as the evolution of object-orientation, is to find
architectural abstractions, such as "iterarators" and "constructors" which
encapsulate important behavioral features of a system.

The "applied ontology" in crypto seems to be a natural fit. Or so I think.
Maybe wishful thinking.

But in which framework or language, given the profusion of frameworks and
languages?

We had some TCL advocates a while back (Strick, Hal...)...any reaction to Java?

And so it goes.

--Tim May




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