Java the language is almost irrelevant. It's the design of the Java Virtual Machine. And I've seen compilers for ML, compilers for Scheme, compilers for Ada, and they all work. Not many people use them, but it doesn't matter: they all work.
The asparagus effect is what happens sometimes when you render 2D images into 3D.
Most developer tools try to shield you from actually writing code in constructing the GUI bits or the database bits. Yet when you do write code you usually get glass teletypes where high tech is keyword coloring.
I enjoy evangelizing Java. In my heart of hearts, I'm an engineer, and what makes me happy is building something that works and having someone use it. That's cool.
From the point of view of the people who are using the platform, one of the most valuable things about Java is the consistency, the interoperability.
One of the things that Java is good at is giving you this homogeneous view of a reality that's usually very heterogeneous.
If you want to write the software to control the national medical system of a large country, Java is perfect.
So in a strong sense with Java it was a learning process for us - there was some tech learning - but the most important learnings were social or behavioral things.
I like to bitch and moan about lawyers, but they often have actually good points.
I didn't do programming language stuff in college at all.
I had half my family that were farmers, and I was really pretty good at repairing farm equipment. There was certainly a period of time where I would have been happy to do that, just to be a farm equipment repairman in Dalemead, Alberta.
