Is Java Dead? Heck No!

For the record: Java is not dead, nor is it dying. It is, however, mature, and perhaps a little grumpy and set in its ways.

Yet it seems one of the best ways to draw attention to a post or commentary on Java and programming is to use the Words “Java” and some variation of “dead” in the headline.

For instance, recently Mark Little, senior director of engineering at Red Hat, wrote a blog post entitled: “JBoss polyglot - death of Java?"

And although the headline suggests that Red Hat’s JBoss unit is pushing a polyglot programming strategy of using several languages for different projects, the gist of the post is that the company is not trying to move away from Java. In fact, Little makes it plain that “we're as committed to Java today as we've ever been.”

Little noted that JBoss is doing projects with languages such as Ruby, Scala, C/C++, Erlang and others. In the post, he said:

… you can't fail to have noticed that we're doing quite a bit of work with languages other than Java. Those include Ruby, via TorqueBox, Clojure with Immutant, C/C++ in Blacktie, Scala in Infinispan, Ceylon and my own personal favorite Erlang. (OK, that's still more a pet project for me than anything else.) But does this mean that we're turning our backs on Java? No, of course it doesn't! If anything it shows our continued commitment to Java and the JVM because all of these approaches to polyglot leverage our Java projects and platforms.

Little added that some of the efforts Red Hat has been involved in that stress its commitment to Java include: Putting JBossAS 7 onto OpenShift; various discussions and presentations on how core enterprise capabilities transcend languages and Java is a great solution; JBossEverywhere is all about making JBoss’ core services and projects available on a wider range of devices and platforms, some of which are not Java-based but many of which are; the company’s increased presence and adoption at JavaOne; and its efforts to define a common fabric/platform across deployments, which will be based on Java and more in line with ubiquitous computing.

“Then there's the number of times that our competitors keep telling people that Java and EE6 are dead and we keep having to set the record straight,” Little said.

So Little makes no bones about acknowledging continued support for Java. He’s just saying Red Hat, like so many other companies, is using other languages. Oracle, the owner and steward of Java is even encouraging Java supporters to use other languages on the Java Virtual Machine. The Da Vinci Machine Project is an effort to extend the Jave Virtual Machine (JVM) with first-class architectural support for languages other than Java, especially dynamic languages.

Next: There Is a Need for Multiple Languages >>