Back on track, but let’s see for how long…

I doubt this has anything to do with the Oracle deal which means that they had planned to go in this direction before. Maybe I’ve just missed it? But I find it a troublesome development that some features of Java would be limited to those that pay for them.

Java 6 Developer preview now available for Leopard

Finally! Unfortunately it requires a 64-bit capable Intel-based Mac (a Core 2 Duo or Xeon) so no luck for us still on G4s, but it’s progress!

It’s not that Java is bad. It’s quite a nice language with a good solid foundation of available classes and libraries. No, the problem is all the frameworks and design patterns you need to use to be able to work at the same level as what come as default in a language in Ruby.

Dependency injection is a good example. I remember then it was the latest hype in Java-land a few years back. In Java it helps you write modular code without tight coupling between the components. And that’s a good thing, right?

However, in Ruby this is a non-issue. You can accomplish the same in Ruby without using a framework and extra libraries.

This is what I dislike with Java. It holds me back! With Ruby I feel I have an incredibly amount of power available at my finger tips. I can concentrate on the fun thing; solving the problem at hand. No need to fuss around with frameworks, support libraries and what not, just to have the ground to build upon.

So to summarize. Ruby makes you happy. Ruby makes you smile. Ruby gives you all you need.

Matt’s written more build scripts than most and around 2000 we both made the mistake of thinking an XML based build file was the way to go. We also both now believe you need a full scripting language. With so much invested in ant, it will still be around for a while, but we think rake is the better solution for the future.

Maybe people are finally coming to their senses! I’ve been lobbying against using ant for quite a while now but with a lack of better alternatives it’s hard to drive the case. Now there’s both JRake that Martin mentions and Raven that I’ve written about before so it’s starting to look promising!