On 8/13/07, Andres Valloud <AVALLOUD at roadrunner.com> wrote:
> Since hashing is such a fundamental issue of computer programming, I
> can't just help worrying that the underlying assumption is that the
> average programmer does not even need to know about these things.

Just for thinking and because I like the role of Devil's advocate: it
used to be that machine language was a fundamental issue of computer
programming...

About the original topic: I did a Java project last year. The biggest
hurdle was that we were working with legacy code, but I must admit
that Eclipse has come a long way, that class reloading helps quite a
bit when developing web apps, and that the refactoring browser in
Eclipse beats its Smalltalk parent because it can make use of the
static type information. Ok, I've been cussin' and swearin' at the
language at times, but overall I must say that my Java productivity
was incredibly high compared to my previous large Java project (with
JDK 1.1 and Emacs/JDE and horrible GNU Make files). And its nice to
see to what extent Eclipse seems to have been "inspired" by Smalltalk
- maybe that will turn out to be Smalltalk's final contribution to the
computer programming community, to hold a candle in the dark and guide
the way :)

"Worse is better" - Java vs. Smalltalk might prove another example of
this. Actually typing in and modifying code is an increasingly small
part of a whole software product lifecycle, and it could just be that
Java closed the gap enough (productivity lower by maybe 50-100%
instead of the order of magnitude that used to hold) that switching to
Smalltalk with all its associated (real and perceived risks) is just
not worth it.

Note: I'm making these comments about "sane" Java environments. Not
the whole J2EE christmas tree :)

-- 
"Human beings make life so interesting. Do you know, that in a
universe so full of wonders, they have managed to invent boredom. " -
Death, in "The Hogfather"