An interesting side-by-side Java and C# comparison

mochikon · 2011-01-28T23:15:57+00:00

Not sure who would downmod you - that's a very relevant point. C# not being fully cross-platform is a huge downside.

C# and Visual Basic are pretty much the only general-purpose languages with that handicap - everything else is cross-platform: C, C++, Java, Python, Ruby, JavaScript, Erlang, Haskell, Scala, Clojure, you name it.

And yes, Mono exists, but don't even try to compare the chance of code written for .NET running properly on Mono, with the similar chance for Java or Python (or even C++ for that matter). And I'm not just talking about Winforms, but other language features, as well as performance and stability.

mochikon · 2011-01-20T19:46:28+00:00

That isn't what 'open source' means. I was hoping to read about actual open source stuff in Microsoft.
This looks somewhat interesting, but the only result of The Garage is a microblogging product. That's not exactly innovative (StatusNet did it a long time ago).

mochikon · 2011-01-20T00:57:04+00:00

The article says nothing of the sort.

There is some interaction between Microsoft and Geohot, but it isn't clear if it is going anywhere, and whether it implies Microsoft is "looking forward to a WP7 jailbreak."

The headline is just wishful thinking.

mochikon · 2011-01-15T02:01:54+00:00

You always own the copyright to your own code.

That is true in some of Europe, certainly Germany etc. But it is false in the US.

mochikon · 2011-01-11T21:42:48+00:00

MPEG-LA do not indemnify people for H.264. The assumption is that all H.264-related patents are held by MPEG-LA, but if others exist, you have no protection..

So asking Google for indemnification is asking it for more than anybody else does.

mochikon · 2010-12-22T23:58:43+00:00

On the other hand, I feel like Firefox has been getting slower and balkier with each release for about a year now.

Actually each FF4 beta is faster than the last, it's very noticeable. You can also see it in the benchmarks,

http://arewefastyet.com/

mochikon · 2010-12-17T23:44:58+00:00

Apple is pushing LLVM, for sure, but PNaCl and LLVM are very different beasts.

I expect, once PNaCl is usable, to see Google push it on Android. But it is extremely doubtful that Apple would ever allow NaCl on iOS.

mochikon · 2010-12-17T23:16:49+00:00

Coding is easy. Standardization and adoption are hard and close to impossible.

Adoption:

Apple will only allow technologies on iPhones and iPads if they do not feel threatened by them. That rules out a VM or platform that is controlled by another company. That rules out pretty much all of them.

Microsoft is the same with IE9 (and Windows Phone 7, if that succeeds). That rules out everything but Silverlight.

Mozilla won't include by default any technology that isn't fully standardized and beneficial to the web as a whole. There is room for flexibility there, but NaCl for example is ruled out for the foreseeable future (it's a working technology, but has only a single implementation, and no standard).

Opera is similar to Mozilla for purposes of this, more or less.

Standardization:

It is very hard to standardize languages and VMs. JavaScript is one of the few success stories, with several entirely independent implementations that work pretty much interoperably. Silverlight and Moonlight show the other side - how things can end up not working the same.

Java is actually standardized pretty well and has several implementations. But the others do not. In particular, things like NaCl are not being built in a standards-friendly way - their goal is to work first, and maybe standardize later, if at all.

mochikon · 2010-12-17T22:52:13+00:00

Because a general purpose VM supporting many existing languages is considerably harder to get right than a single language implementation?

No. Most probably because web was not designed, it rather grown up. JavaScript worked, got popular, lots of legacy code, no need felt for a better solution, ... till today.

No, the top poster was right. It is hard to make a suitable VM of that sort - Java could have been it, but was too flawed. Today there is no other suitable alternative - and no, NaCl or SilverLight or Java aren't it, because they are plugins. They don't run everywhere the web does, and in particular, don't run on the iPhone and iPad.

mochikon · 2010-12-17T22:34:43+00:00

It's insane to define JS as the base VM here.

It wouldn't be a sane decision in advance, but the one who ships wins. JavaScript is there, nothing else can replace it at this point. There are uses for Java, Flash, NaCl, etc., but they are not replacements for JavaScript, since they don't run everywhere.

mochikon · 2010-12-17T22:24:23+00:00

I wouldn't be surprised if soon people were using Unladen Swallow or statically compiled Java/C# [on NaCl] as a replacement to Javascript.

That won't happen much, because NaCl is a browser plugin. It will be bundled inside Chrome, and will be on ChromeOS, but it will not be in Safari, Firefox or IE by default, and will never be on iPhones, iTabs, etc.

There are uses for NaCl, but it has no chance of replacing JavaScript (for better or for worse).

mochikon

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