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Moving Past Java (cont'd)
Madhu Siddalingaiah's interview with Bruce Tate continues. Bruce explains why
web developers are moving from Java to Ruby on Rails.
Siddalingaiah: Unlike Java, Ruby is weakly typed. In your
experience does this weak typing lead to more runtime errors?
Tate: Let me say it a different way. Ruby is strongly typed, but
dynamically typed. So
4 + "4"
throws an error, but i = 4
followed by
i =
"4"
doesn't. There are some problems with dynamic typing --how do you
build tools like IDEA? How do you catch spelling mistakes without a
compiler?
But I think we're starting to understand that applications have to be
unit tested. The better Java shops unit test too. So if you unit test,
some of the typing issues go away. Also, since you don't have a lengthy
compile-deploy cycle, the typical Ruby developer writes no more than a few
lines of code before trying out the app.
Java developers develop in much larger chunks, so more code goes
untested. I think static typing is reasonable for systems languages, but
all of the most productive applications languages have been dynamically
typed. Visual Basic, Python, Ruby, Perl, Smalltalk ... you name it. Sure,
there are some quick and dirty languages in that mix. But there are some
very structured and clean ones as well. And they're much more productive.
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Siddalingaiah: In the past, performance had been a big issue with
dynamic languages. In your opinion, is that an issue today?
Tate: Performance is all about clustering, and database access.
Most
performance bottlenecks are in the database. Ruby on Rails scales quite
well, as do most Python applications. Just-in-time compiler technology
can also come into play. |
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Siddalingaiah: Groovy seems to have some of the features of Python
and to some degree Ruby. Do you see Groovy addressing some of the
limitations of Java?
Tate: Groovy is a little too "kitchen-sink"ish for my taste. I
think Groovy has really suffered from a lack of a consistent vision. It's
a shame, because the language has great marketing support. Most serious
language experts that I interviewed for Beyond Java really hated Groovy.
Siddalingaiah: Let's move to one of my personal concerns: XML
configuration files. Some developers in the Rails community have referred
to configuration as "XML situps". Do you feel that there are too many
configuration details in enterprise Java applications today?
Tate: Yes, definitely.
Next: Frameworks, POJOs, and AOP
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Related Opinions
"Java
is the SUV of programming tools."
-- Philip Greenspun
"Java, especially enterprise Java, has grown into a complex behemoth that
consists of layer upon layer of complexity."
-- David Geary "Ruby
on Rails today looks poised to eat Java's mindshare on the web tier. If
not Rails, then something else."
-- Jason Hunter |
