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Java Calendar, Browser Check, etc.
The Language Preference Function
Late Friday afternoons in the student lounge was the scene of the Liquidity Preference Function. Liquid assets imbibed by students included Heineken, Amstel Light, wine, etc. I don't recall Java being served by Jeeves, but if it was, it would have been a Method rather than a Function. This method, in all the madness, may have been preferred by the class, or at least absorbed into a subclass of the class, which extends (from) the object of high marks, great job offers, and financial nirvana.Everyone has a language preference function as well. I prefer English, but someone might prefer French, Java or SQL. I think English supports encapsulation, inheritance, polymorphism, and dynamic loading as well as the next language, thus qualifying as an object-oriented language. The preference function must factor in the expected return on learning the nuances of the language. To learn Java, you're generally expected to know C++. To learn C++, you're generally expected to know C.... If you follow the chain, you eventually get back to English. The nice thing about Java over English, in my opinion, is the automatic garbage collection. I wish there was a function in English to take out the garbage for me.
The beauty of Java, like Visa or Mastercard, is that it works pretty much everywhere. You're not stuck to Windows or Solaris or MVS. Perhaps the drawback to some is that it requires imagination...an imaginary virtual Java machine, which must be implemented on real machines by emulating it in software. This imaginary machine is defined in a spec, so everyone should be able to imagine the same machine. Of course, Windows 95 or NT imagine that setBackground(Color) should not be supported and that equal priority threads should preempt each other. I guess we'll always fall short of that elusive universal language. Just remember that a class is like a struct, main methods are always static, and omnia en bonum (it's all unto good!). Whether you're brewing Java or golden ale, make it simple, robust, easy-to-use, and portable.
