more java vs javascript
14/05/07 20:57 Filed in: Internet
Sun Debuts JavaFX As Alternative To
AJAX: "r7 writes 'Internetnews is
reporting on Sun's introduction of JavaFX at
JavaOne today. Looks like a combination Applet,
Flash, Javascript, and AJAX with a friendly
programming interface. Does this really spell the
end of AJAX? I sincerely hope so. Nothing built on
Javascript will ever achieve the security,
cross-platform reliability, and programmatic
friendliness that Web 2.0 needs. Proprietary
solutions and vendor lock-in are also dead ends.
JavaFX has the potential to satisfy this
opportunity even better than did Java over a
decade ago. Along with AJAX, let's hope JavaFX
also puts paid to Microsoft's viral Active-X and
JScript, and, more importantly, that it really is
a web scripting language that developers can
grok.'
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
(Via Slashdot.)
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
(Via Slashdot.)
This is the last but one of my catch up postings,
I've almost reached the bottom of my inbox!
And it's a subject I've written about before.
While I tend to agree with a lot of the sentiment of the poster here, I'm not sure that another version of Java is really the answer here. Yes Java was built with security in mind right from the start, where as a lot of javascript security reilied on the fact that it simply couldn't do a lot stuff which would enable it to be used to attack machines. It used to be the case that javascript had no access to the local file system for instance, this is no longer the case, so javascript's security has had to evolve, which may or may not be a good thing.
On the plus side this means that it's grown with the methods of attack, on the minus side if there design was not secure at the foundation, it's not secure.
But no we really need another version of Java? Yes it's secure and a very cool language, I like it a lot, but just not as much as javascript. It seems to me that this could just be sun's attempt to cash in the on the current wave of web 2.0 ajax apps.
Java still has problems if it wants to make it's way here. Firstly if this is a new version of Java, how much of the code is new? I seem to remember that early versions of Java had security holes in the implementation. Then there is the issue of speed. Java because it is secure has never been a speed demon, maybe this version will fix that.
The next problem is one is of spreading code. With javascript if you see a cool effect, you can have a look at the code and learn from it. Yes there are ways that this can be made harder, but there is no way you can stop it. Yes I know you can do something vaguely similar with Java but dumping the public classes still won't give you the code. Some may think that this is a good thing, but I'm not so sure. And yes I do admit that there are a lot of Java programers out there already, but the question is these the sort of enthusiastic hackers that got the whole ajax thing going? I'm not sure.
Finally and the biggest problem of all is that javascript is practically endemic on the web. I can't think of a normal web browser that doesn't have javascript and even browsers on mobiles have it now. Java never got to that level of exposure because it has almost always been an add on or plug in. Maybe if this hadn't been the case a few years ago then things would be different. But it wasn't so like it or not, I don't see javascript going away any time soon.
And it's a subject I've written about before.
While I tend to agree with a lot of the sentiment of the poster here, I'm not sure that another version of Java is really the answer here. Yes Java was built with security in mind right from the start, where as a lot of javascript security reilied on the fact that it simply couldn't do a lot stuff which would enable it to be used to attack machines. It used to be the case that javascript had no access to the local file system for instance, this is no longer the case, so javascript's security has had to evolve, which may or may not be a good thing.
On the plus side this means that it's grown with the methods of attack, on the minus side if there design was not secure at the foundation, it's not secure.
But no we really need another version of Java? Yes it's secure and a very cool language, I like it a lot, but just not as much as javascript. It seems to me that this could just be sun's attempt to cash in the on the current wave of web 2.0 ajax apps.
Java still has problems if it wants to make it's way here. Firstly if this is a new version of Java, how much of the code is new? I seem to remember that early versions of Java had security holes in the implementation. Then there is the issue of speed. Java because it is secure has never been a speed demon, maybe this version will fix that.
The next problem is one is of spreading code. With javascript if you see a cool effect, you can have a look at the code and learn from it. Yes there are ways that this can be made harder, but there is no way you can stop it. Yes I know you can do something vaguely similar with Java but dumping the public classes still won't give you the code. Some may think that this is a good thing, but I'm not so sure. And yes I do admit that there are a lot of Java programers out there already, but the question is these the sort of enthusiastic hackers that got the whole ajax thing going? I'm not sure.
Finally and the biggest problem of all is that javascript is practically endemic on the web. I can't think of a normal web browser that doesn't have javascript and even browsers on mobiles have it now. Java never got to that level of exposure because it has almost always been an add on or plug in. Maybe if this hadn't been the case a few years ago then things would be different. But it wasn't so like it or not, I don't see javascript going away any time soon.
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