I can name at least dozen "scripting" languages that run atop the Java Runtime Environment. About half of them have been around for nearly a decade. The most popular non-Java scripting languages (e.g. Ruby, Python) started creeping into the enterprise by way of their JRE implementations (e.g. JRuby, Jython). Nevertheless, apparently the ultimate "Java Killer" is going to be... yet ANOTHER language running atop the Java Runtime Environment! Developed by the company behind the JBoss, one of the top-5 Java application servers. And Seam, one of the top-5 Java application frameworks. Apparently, Java "dies" in the same manner as Dr. Who...

I get it. I understand why these posts are so popular, and why Slashdot runs at least one per week. Compared to Ruby on Rails or whatever... Java is relatively verbose, and it's more cumbersome for newbies to write their first Hello World app. Of course when you're working on real-world enterprise projects, with large developer teams and significant codebases, then much of that cumbersome stuff makes life a lot easier. But many people online are closer to that Hello World end of the spectrum, so a language's "Hello World experience" drives message board mindshare. Plus, there is the evil-Oracle thing on top of that. So Java sucks. Java's dying. I get it.

Except that it's not. At least not anytime soon, and not until you can show me a credible replacement that doesn't have "Runs On The JRE!" as its main selling point. I'm sure that something will come along eventually, but hell... in the realm of core business logic, Java only just surpassed "legacy" languages such as COBOL and C++ within the past few years! Moreover, the best contenders for "Next Big Thing" are JRE-based languages such as Scala, for which fundamental Java knowledge makes you more productive. Hell, even *off* the JRE, I would argue that being a top-class Ruby or Python developer requires as much computer science knowledge as with Java. Once you get beyond the Hello World stage, the idea that "scripting" languages are easier to learn is a fairy tale.

All that being said... I'm poo-poo'ing the hyperbole in the title, and not the content itself. It's nice to see another strongly-typed language on the JRE besides Scala. From what I see in the slideshow, this Ceylon thing looks like a "me too!" version of Scala, which has an 8-year head start. However, the Seam framework from RedHat has always been a rather "me too!" competitor to Spring also. Even though I've worked more in the Spring camp, I've still benefited from Seam because it pushes Spring to stay ahead. Maybe Scala can benefit from this competition also.

Take a scale.

On one side of the scale, place a million dollars (relative to the annual revenue of Oracle).

On the other side of the scale, place the value of maintaining some kind of redirect for the millions of links that will never completely go away. Then place the value of keeping the domain out of the hands of anyone who might use it in a way detrimental to your interests. Last but not least... place the fact that "sun.com" is embedded in the DTD's and XML Schemas for virtually all Java technology, and it would take decades to fully migrate away from and decommission all that.

This is so stupidly lopsided, the scale would break. Oracle will never do this. Maybe the point is simply that this domain name has a high appraisal value... but even that is not particularly interesting (*every* three-letter domain has a high appraisal value). This "story" is only here because any lazy filler involving Oracle, Microsoft, or the other standard villains is always good for a few clicks and advertising impressions.

Exactly. Every week or two, some variant of this "story" is cut-n-pasted by an editor who either doesn't know any better... or who does know better and posts it anyway to attract ignorant eyeballs. Clueless people love reading and ranting on this issue... because it involves:

1. 1) A company that everyone hates (Oracle)
2. 2) A subject that almost everyone here hates and almost no one here understands (patents)
3. 3) A language (Java) that most people here never quite trusted in the first place, either because:
   1. a) They're C/C++ old farts, and think it's for young whipper-snappers
   2. 2) They're PHP/Ruby whipper-snappers, and think it's for old farts, or
   3. 3) They're Richard Stallman

... what are you kids TALKING about? It seems like most of the replies on this branch of the thread are about convergence between phones and PC's, and eventually using productivity apps on your phone. Who on earth wants to use a 3-inch phone to manipulate a spreadsheet, type in a word processor, or anything beyond the most specialized niche of data-entry for any extended period of time? Even tablet devices are poorly-suited for such tasks.

The intended purpose of a smart phone is not content generation or productivity. Their purpose is to read stuff (e.g. important email, directions to the restaurant, etc), and to play Angry Birds... until you've finished your car trip or boring meeting, and can return to your PC. You might tap a one-sentence reply to an email (with crappy grammar and capitalization), or enter the name of the restaurant, but that's about it for productive data-entry.

The limitation behind this is not the number of CPU cores in the device, nor its power budget. The limitation is the form factor! Duh! You can cram a supercomputer into the thing... yet even with the most clever swipey-typing system, it will still suck compared to a keyboard and full-sized monitor screen. Now, the idea of docking stations for your phone (or perhaps a standard docking port for phones on your PC) does sound like it could be useful in some circumstances... but I'm highly skeptical of full-blown "convergence".

Jesus Tittyfucking Christ... I don't know why I still bother to browse this site from time to time. It's a hollow shell of what it was before the buyout. Most of the posts today are some variation of:

(EVIL ENTITY X) is doing (NEFARIOUS ACTION Y) in the realm of (PATENTS || COPYRIGHT || LEGISLATION || OPEN SOURCE || YOUR FAVORITE LANGUAGE || YOUR FAVORITE GADGET || APPLE FANBOYS || APPLE HATERS). Discuss!

The information is always utter crap, neither fact-checked nor probably even read by the editor... and has no other purpose than to attract eyeballs by provoking flamewars. 90% of the comments are by marks who swallowed the bait, and of course didn't bother to RTFA. The only real value of this site is in the 10% of readers who have a clue and comment with actual information in response to the posts.

The parent is one such 10%'er. NetBeans is not "dropping" Ruby... it's simply handing off the code to the community. Just as Oracle did in handing off TopLink (i.e. EclipseLink) to the Eclipse Foundation. The person who submitted this story is an idiot, as is the lazy editor who posted it. There's really nothing else to add.

Whether it's under the Western legal system, or under any cognizable system of morality developed by the human race... children are not recognized as being capable of forming proper consent for sexual activity. Therefore, sexual activity with a child is inherently coercive and exploitative. Therefore, the only pedophile who is arguably "non-threatening" is one who is a pedophile only in his or her mind... without ever putting it into practice.

This is a debate that can be held with calm and cool heads, addressing each other rationally. However, the claim that pedophilia is a "sexual orientation" really does warrant a gay person punching you in the face. Really, really hard. You do not get to piggyback a ride with illegal aliens, or Muslims, or any other completely unrelated group that is solely calculated to draw reflexively-liberal sympathy. That accomplishes nothing except hurting those groups by giving ammunition to their right-wing enemies, who already think in those terms and look for excuses to justify it.

Hmm... the child rape apologist is modded "5: Informative", whereas most people pointing out how fucked up that is are modded "-1: Troll" or "-1: Flamebait".

Either there's an organized group with mod points... or else Slashdot culture has finally drifted to the point where I'm no longer part of the community.

If it's the latter, then I blame the Apple fanboys for starting this process.

Why on earth is this modded "5, Funny", rather than "5, Insightful"?!? Actually, I would mod it "5, Agree" if I could... but "5, Insightful" means more or less the same thing.

Ah, yes. Around 2000 or 2001, my then-employer rewarded some overtime by sending me to New Orleans for the "ATG Open"... ATG's version of Java One. ATG hired a hundred or so jazz musicians to stand around the hallways of the hotel playing music all day. They hired a few dozen more people to dress up as the company mascot (a square with a dot in the center), just to stand around the hallways for the hell of it waving to everyone. Free booze was everywhere, and at night the hotel conference rooms were turned into dance parties with half-naked women suspended from the ceilings in cages.

On the last day, they closed off Bourbon Street for a parade with all the musicians and weird "dot" mascots. That night they rented out the freaking Superdome for a jazz/rock concert, along with carnival rides and a field goal kicking contest (NOTE: Football kickers deserve respect, 25 yards is a LONG way!). On our way out, they gave each attendee hundreds of dollars worth of premium-quality swag... designer pens, football jerseys, and a weekend luggage bag that I still take to the gym today.

I miss the dot-com years.

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that the machine-or-transformation test is not at all applicable to Beauregard claims. However, BPAI rulings and District Court decisions over the past year have been all over the map on it. Some view Alappat and Beauregard doctrine as turning a "general-use" computer into a "particular" machine, satisfying that first prong. Others opinions "pierce the veil" so to speak, and consider the particularity of the machine apart from merely having software on it (e.g. Cybersource in California).

Regardless, when you invent software and install it on a general-use computer... in my opinion it's fundamentally disingenuous to say that you have a "particular machine". Even if Beauregard claims offer weaker protection than claims written in method or system form, the fact that a patent issues at all creates a chilling effect because most parties will simply consent to a licensing shakedown rather than spend the $4+ million required to litigate validity or non-infringement. Beauregard is simply terrible doctrine, and it would have been nice for everyone (even those who disagree) to get some finality on its status either way.

While Bilski lost, the Supreme Court did not throw out software or method patents. The Supreme Court actually re-opened the door just a bit after the Federal Circuit had left it cracked.

The actual majority opinion is only 16 pages long, and really doesn't say much. They more or less like the "machine or transformation" test that the Federal Circuit had come up with... wherein a method patent must tie any abstract ideas to a "particular" machine or transformation of matter, such that the abstract idea may be combined with other machines or transformations not protected by the patent. However, the Supreme Court now says that while this test may get the job done most of the time, it is not necessarily the only possible test (and they don't say what the other tests might include.

Most important for software patent watchers, the Supreme Court completely ignored In re Alappat and the impact of "Beauregard claims" on the Federal Circuit "machine or transformation" test. That older Alappat decision opened the door for patentee to write claims for software as being articles of manufacter. This "Bearegard" format is basically a sneaky trick... saying that you haven't invented software on a hard drive (which should be analyzed as a method), but rather you've invented a hard drive that has software on it (which should NOT be treated as a method). This is how most software still gets in the door, as the PTO gives it a wink and a nudge doesn't treat it as being "software" at all! This was the issue that software patentees were watching mostly closely, and Supreme Court was completely silent and left the status quo untouched.

Nice headline, but it does not reflect the total picture. This opinion is NOT a victory whatsoever for the anti-software patent crowd.

Any of you editors care to post on the Bilski decision coming down earlier this morning... so Slashdot can kick off the firestorm about software patents effectively being upheld?