Sun Hires Two Key Python Developers 173
sspringer writes to let us know about Sun's continuing push to support scripting languages other than Java on its Java virtual machine. Sun just hired two key Python developers: Ted Leung, a long-time Python developer at the Open Source Applications Foundation, and Frank Wierzbicki, who is lead implementer of the Jython project. They will both work on Jython, which enables Python to run on the JVM. Last month Sun's CEO said the company wants to "take the J off the JVM and just make it a VM."
What happened to Tcl? (Score:5, Interesting)
wow; parrot has had an impact. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:too little too late (Score:-1, Interesting)
Java didn't work out??? Which universe do you live in?
We have a whole team of Java devs here, earning good salaries, working on interesting projects, being able to afford homes, cars, plasma TVs, etc. We're a multi-billion $$$ company
Number of Python / Ruby / Tcl developers employed here: 0. ZERO. Not one. NADA.
So, Java not working out, eh? Young boy, get some some education before you start spewing rubbish like this.
VM Craze (Score:-1, Interesting)
So instead of finding those good programmers, why not develop a programming language that shields the programmer from themselves, and allows us to hire lots of cheap, low skilled mediocre programmers. Enter Java.
Don't worry about complex things, like overloading, algorithms, memory management, let java do it for you.
The entry level programmers can crank out huge mounds of steaming code in record time.
they don't have to worry about destroying the OS, overwriting pointers, null pointers, etc, because the virtual machine will shield them from all that.
There is still a core group of very good programmers, all being used to write more and more virtual machines, so the mediocre programmers have something to use.
Re:Inevitable, and very welcome (Score:3, Interesting)
Actually, Python has been appearing on phones for quite a while, notably Nokia Series 60. I'm not sure, but it might also be possible to use Jython with J2ME devices.
A VM is just another PLATFORM! (Score:5, Interesting)
Sun didn't get it. Dot-Net got it because they were able to use hindsight to fill in the gaps where Sun didn't. The truth is, VMs and portable languages don't make operating systems irrelevant. They just (partially) virtualize the OS on top of the native one. The sooner VM language people realize this, and all of the pitfalls, the sooner things will get better! (Many already get things right. Python and Ruby seem to get this.)
VMs won't be the panacea of performance (Score:3, Interesting)
I think the VMs are improving towards the speed of static compliation. Sure there are benefits such that we could potentially see faster VM code - but there's also layers and layers of cruft that comes about because of VM abstractions. I think projects like LLVM will eventually produce code faster than any VM, with architecture independence. The project is comparatively young, and I think it will have a bright future.
The JVM, and CLR kinda symbolise the heavy-weight approach of modern software design. A hello-world xaml application uses 40 megs of memory!
With per-core CPU speeds capping, I'd like to see a more cut-down approach to software development. A brand new computer might by 1000 times faster than a similar product 20 years ago, and it seems we write software that's 1000 times slower. [hubpages.com]
Re:A VM is just another PLATFORM! (Score:5, Interesting)
I think you are also wrong about virtualization. The whole point of virtualization is to abstract away OS specifics to the point where it literally is nothing more than a commodity needed to run the vm. Who cares if it is mac, windows or linux running your php/Java/ruby server? If you are doing LAMP development, virtualization is what allows you to scale your new hot web application using Amazon provided service on demand stuff. Stuff like JRuby shows that virtualization can actually be fast and scalable too (it's basically kicking regular ruby's ass). Jython is basically going the same way.
Microsoft certainly had the right ideas with
Re:too little too late (Score:2, Interesting)
I'm interested to know where your dislike for Java comes from?
Re:A VM is just another PLATFORM! (Score:3, Interesting)
If you haven't then I suggest you climb down from your ivory tower and check out the real world sometime...
Java Version Hell -- Hell Yeah! (Score:3, Interesting)