Do We Need A Replacement For Java?

Tom asks: "I've heard a lot of talk recently about how Sun is going the wrong way with Java and we need an open source replacement for 'write once, run anywhere'. What I want to know is: how many people really support this notion?" Although I think such a concept would be nice, Java has strayed from this and has become Yet Another Language. Don't get me wrong, like any language, Java has its strengths and weaknesses, but I'm wondering if the Write-Once-Run-Anywhere concept is better found in your average scripting language (ala Perl, PHP, Python and others) rather than large scale languages like Java, and C. Click below for more details on this subject.

"Now for a more technical look.

The reason I like WORA (write once, run anywhere) is because when I write a piece of software, I want to exert minimum effort to reach the largest possible audience. Here's why I think the status quo is insufficient:

• C/C++ - Lots of standard libraries, but inconsistency of simple datatypes along with a non cross platform outlook lead to a different API for each platform in many cases. On an Apache XML developer mail list they've been trying to figure out the best way of doing wide character strings for almost a month.
• Java - Simplifies the basics, including GUI, but it eats memory. GCJ may speed things up and lower memory requirements. Is this enough? Also, in terms of GUI, I think they are going the wrong direction. Sure Swing gives lots of power to make nice GUIs, but wouldn't it be nice to just use system widgets? Like, I change my Enlightenment theme, and my Java apps change, too. Also, it's worth remembering unusual systems like Macs with their menus at the top, or RiscOS with their cool saving dialogs, and so on. All that should be automatic.
• Perl - I am not a Perl expert, so I don't know the field well, here. I have learned enough to not trust anyone but an expert engineer to write solid code in it, though. Also, are there any standard ways to do GUI or compile to executables? There may be, but again, I'm no expert.

Anyway, my ideal language would have the robustness and object-orientedness of Eiffel, the dynamic and networked nature of Java while still allowing for real compiled code, be more WORA than Java (especially in GUI), be open source, have garbage collection and deadlock detection, and be available on every platform (open source helps here).

I have other things I could add to the list, but that's the main items. (A close second is being super XML aware.)

What do people think? Do we need another WORA language? If so, what should it be like?"