Java's Cover (2001)

Just in case it does any good, let me clarify that I'm not writing here about Java but about hacker's radar. I've never written a Java program, never more than glanced over reference books about it, but I have a hunch that it won't be a very successful language. In the original Java white paper, Gosling explicitly says Java was designed not to be too difficult for programmers used to C. It was designed to be another C++: C plus a few ideas taken from more advanced languages. The reason we hear about Java all the time is not because it has something to say about programming languages. A lot of the people I know using Java are using it because they feel they have to. Sun now pretends that Java is a grassroots, open-source language effort like Perl or Python. Who does like Java? Suits, who don't know one language from another, but know that they keep hearing about Java in the press; programmers at big companies, who are amazed to find that there is something even better than C++; and plug-and-chug undergrads, who are ready to like anything that might get them a job.