Re: Pondering the dev tool landscape from an outsider

Gareth Conner wrote:
That's interesting, I'll have to take a look at Groovy. Does it
complicate distribution much? I suppose it's just another jar file
that has to get stuffed in with your application...

Yes. From what I've read, it's simply an additional jar file.

At present, my app is Windows-only. If I could get cross-platform
capability to OSX without much pain that would be a benefit, but it
isn't a deal-breaker for me.

From the sounds of what you've described with JNI stuff, there will
probably be some degree of pain involved. I doubt Groovy can help
alleviate the pain there, but, the primary advantage of using Java is
that if you go cross platform, most of the pain will be in that layer.

With windows-only type solutions, you will be faced with difficult
decisions if cross platform becomes important.

From the work I've done in .Net, it seems to suffer from much of the
same girth as Java. For lack of a better description, the code gets so
involved that it can kill the fun pretty quickly. The only clear
advantage of .Net over Java that I can see is that it is much easier to
interop with native code.

On the whole I agree; I do think there are some things that .NET does
much better than Java. But Java has been around for quite some time and
the cross platform support is quite good.

Mono appears, on the surface, to have the best of both .Net & Java
(easy interop, easy cross-platform). But, the lack of a complete GUI
toolkit on OSX negates the cross-platform benefit, for me.

IMO, Mono is pretty much a no go for OSX.

I will certainly take a look at Groovy. I've been leveraging the
Netbeans Platform (not just the IDE) as a foundation for the app
because it gives some nice touches for free (docking windows, action
framework, plugin framework, properties grid, etc.). I'm interested to
see how easy it easy to use Groovy within the Netbeans RCP. That could
be a powerful combo.

I think Groovy is a really nice complement for Java; it addresses some
of Java's weaknesses while maintaining its strengths.

Groovy is pretty cutting edge stuff and the tool support is currently
weak. But I do think it's worth a look, especially considering your
existing investment in Java code. OTOH, I can certainly understand if
you choose a different path.

Thanks Brian, I appreciate your input.

Anytime.

--
Brian Moelk
Brain Endeavor LLC
bmoelk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Java -> ActionScript?
    ... Performance in Groovy aufs Korn genommen... ... Aber gegen Java selbst hat es eben keine Chance. ... JS2 scheint versuchen zu wollen in den statischen Sektor vorzudringen... ...
    (de.comp.lang.java)
  • Re: Groovy (war Re: [PROST]Re: CDC Plugin fuer Eclipse)
    ... In Java gibt es das nicht, also kann Java sich kein if definieren ohne ein if, switch, den trinären Operator oder eine Schleife zu benutzen. ... Immerhin kann man dann in groovy eine while-Schleife fast aussehen lassen, ... Ruby hat keine kontextfreie Grammatik und man musste massiv tricksen, um die Grammatik durch yacc zu implementieren. ... dass die Funktion/Closure ganz links steht und alles danach Argumente dieser Funktion sind. ...
    (de.comp.lang.java)
  • Re: Java -> ActionScript?
    ... Performance in Groovy aufs Korn genommen... ... da ich JavaScript und Java kannte. ... gibt es eben eine MissingMethodException zur Laufzeit und gut ist. ...
    (de.comp.lang.java)
  • Re: [OT] Ruby vs. Helma
    ... Problem ist eher, dass man vielleicht keine Closure wollte, sondern den Wert aus dem Aufruf der getter-Methode. ... die Groovy erfolgreich und zufrieden einsetzen. ... Ganz entsprechend Java kann in1 das in2 nur verdecken, ... wie habe ich mir denn einen Interpreter vorzustellen, der auf gemeinsamen interfaces und anonymen Klassen basiert? ...
    (de.comp.lang.java)
  • Re: [OT] Ruby vs. Helma
    ... dokumentiert als Ruby, da hilft es nicht, wenn da noch ein Rahmenwerk ... Und weil man immernoch recht viel Java nutzen kann wenn man unbedingt will. ... also in Groovy fand ich das jetzt schon einige Male sehr praktisch muss ich sagen. ...
    (de.comp.lang.java)