20 Sep
1998
20 Sep
'98
6:30 p.m.
On Mon, 21 Sep 1998, Jim wrote:
At the risk of starting a flame war, yes Java is
universal. It works
universally badly on every machine I've seen. The days of a lingua
franca for computers are not yet here, I think. And with microsoft
inventing their own extensions and protocols it's not likely to BE upon
us any time soon.
Don't confuse performance issues with the value of a well-documented
execution environment that was designed to be emulated!
It is in Microsoft's interest to "embrace and extend" any standard they
didn't invent, and that means that they will never offer a standard Java
and it probably means that Internet Explorer will intentionally choke on
standard Java, but that won't significantly detract from the long-term
benefit of having a standard Java. If Java didn't exist, it would be our
duty as preservers-by-simulation to invent it.
-- Doug