Re: [gentoo-dev] Re: Packages up for grabs

[Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com>]

On 07/08/2016 19:36, james wrote:
>> The interesting apps out there are mostly running python, go and
>> (sometimes) lua. And that's what I observe in my day job -
>> business/mobile ISP.
> 
> 
> Look at the job listing on stackoverflow and elsewhere (java) is very
> popular when they list several programming languages to meet the
> requirements. I'm not promoting java, at all, but just stating that it
> is very popular, on new projects (but not all) and it is a large and
> frequent requirement, dictating by employers. Kids coming out of college
> want a job, more than anything, and most are having java crammed down
> their throats. So we should  find a way to robustly
> support those that need java. Nothing is precluding other languages
> in my message. Personally I avoid java, unless it is critical to
> a code or family of codes I need to run.


I recommend Java as a teaching language at university level.

You get all the benefits of a C-like syntax without the overhead of
learning to deal with C and/or C++. You don't have to deal with the
toolchain (much), you can easily show correct implementations of OOP
style without getting into generics (or, you can avoid Java generics
altogether at this level and pretend they don't exist).

In short, what's not to like for teaching? All win not much lose.

Well OK some kids come away thinking Java is the one and only, but they
will have that too if Python is the teaching language. Realizing there
are other things out there is part of the learning process.

But, despite all that, Java is not special. It should run on Gentoo for
anyone who wants it, just like things starting with P.

You volunteering to do the grunt work?

-- 
Alan McKinnon
alan.mckinnon@gmail.com