Smartphones are not useless toys by any means. If you think that then I'm afraid your century has gone.

That is certainly true, but most of the libraries that are used for core functionality of applications (at least if your application is not just a GUI or Android specific) are fully compatible with the Java runtime after compilation, and almost any third party lib can be compiled and run. The only problem is that many applications are too dependent on the GUI - in other words if they are badly written.

Dunno, but it keeps managers from only allowing the "free" version I suppose, and it does not have any relation to the word "cheap" and therefore "sub-par". Although I guess it does by now, at least for software.

It used to be that reporters first learned basic grammar before creating an article. English is not my first language, but that article has been written so badly that it is hurting my eyes. Even the quotes don't make sense (if they are actually quotes, who can tell?)

PyDev is an Eclpise plugin, which is build using Java. I find it a bit ironic you are immediately pointing to a very successful Java IDE.

Crap should break. Otherwise, if you spend just a bit of time making sure that your application has been created using Java rules.

Java is well known to be a pretty conservative language regarding new features, so I really don't know what you are talking about there.

And *any* language has it's crap API's or bloatware, Java is certainly not an exception there.

The Java API is generally considered a very well written and documented API. Many functions are not directly present from an OS. Stating that the OS functions are easier to program against is certainly - well, actually just wrong. Generally they are much more complex and much less documented than the Java API. The tool support tends to be much worse too, with a steep learning curve (in general), never mind trying to compile for another platform with different libraries and drivers.

I'm not a big fan of using Java or Flash in web browsers, although I think the access controlled Java is at least a lot less vulnerable - if updated from time to time - than flash. Unfortunately, it is also pretty shitty for web applications/games compared with flash.

You should look at another Vendor, because it is *broken*.

I'm a really big proponent of Java, but I'll be the first to say that it failed to make an impact as web-plugin. I don't know how they could screw up so badly (I do have a few pointers such as the horrible AWT / Swing idea) but I'll be the first that applets and - in lesser form - webstart completely and utterly sucks. And you could say that for many Java GUI applications, if only for the horrendous, evil, completely useless file chooser dialog box that should somehow reassemble the OS provided one.

I'll make a small exception for Eclipse and Eclipse based applications, which does have a pretty good (underestimated) application framework.

Right.

Point me to the mature crypto library for those frameworks. The static code analyzers. The parsing IDE's. The tools. The extensive libraries. The up to date unicode handling. I've seen many many claims about "mature" frameworks that simply aren't. Actually, I make a point of trying out frameworks. Many don't even make it into the first week, and I have met none that are as mature and maintainable as Java.

In my spare time I have thought of many many ways of creating a more mature language than Java, fixing many of it's mistakes. I *know* it can be done. Unfortunately most languages seem to focus on sparsity and features instead of readability, security and maintainability. I'll happily switch if I can find one that does a better job (and isn't SmallTalk).

Require correct Java applications next time. None of the software I have *ever* written for Java had problems after an update. Sometimes you use deprecated methods (which tend to be supported for about forever before disappearing) but that's it.

I had one or two problems with Eclipse, but that had to do with the SWT, not so much with the Java update itself either.

Then you should take a careful look at your source code, because it is *broken*.

Humbug. The article even says there are few zero day exploits in there. Real security issues are fixed in orderly fashion (well, mostly, nothing's perfect).

And look at the other option: implementing it yourself. Do you think that companies performing all the memory management and security implementations would be doing a better job? Less visible maybe, but I'm pretty sure that the relatively few bugs that affect Java deployments weigh up against that? My bet (and my experience with "seasoned C++ programmers") says that they don't.

Java is doing pretty well regarding security. Yes, it could still be a *lot* better, but I think it does pretty well compared with most other languages or web frameworks. Or do you have a better alternative?

I'm not a fan of any copyright bureau, but I have to point out the obvious: how many people will download a *crappy* movie and still go to the theater? That's lost sales, even *if* it is for a crappy movie *1.

*1 crappy for the general public, there is lots of movies that I would think of as crappy that become a box office success

Why is this modded interesting? I have a strong feeling it does not work that way, and "we" are certainly not doing that on purpose. Funny maybe, interesting? Nah.

This kind of answer deserves a +5 funny guys, where's the slashdot of old?