Java > Scala

[Regan Heath]

On Wed, 30 Nov 2011 20:52:49 -0000, Paulo Pinto <pjmlp at progtools.org>  
wrote:
> Well doing lots of transactions per second while aggregating data
> from network elements scattered across mobile network stations
> seems quite a lot of work to me.

I wasn't suggesting it wasn't "a lot" but that you could "do more" with  
the same hardware using a compiled language.  My actual point was that the  
deciding factor (as to what language to use) is actually "do you need to  
do more?" not "can you do more?".

> I worked in several projects from quite a few big mobile companies and I  
> can say that most code that runs on the network side doing analysis of  
> your mobile activities is either JVM or .Net based.

That doesn't surprise me.  I have a friend in financial programming and  
they're primarily using Java also.  But... they have rewritten performance  
critical sections in C/C++ where they discovered they needed to "do more".

> Since 2004 the middleware used by mobile operators has been being  
> migrated from C and C++ codebases mostly to Java and C#. Usually only  
> devices with hardware restrictions are left untouched.
>
> Most of the operators software is now Web, Eclipse/Netbeans or Windows  
> Forms/WPF based.
>
> Polyglot programming is preferred to one single language (hammer), and  
> as such, most project managers don't see as a downside that you need to  
> mix languages.

Oh, I agree, definitely use the right tool for the job.  I wasn't saying  
Java or a JVM language was the wrong tool.. *unless* you actually hit the  
performance wall and "need more".  In which case you can either buy better  
hardware or move to a more performant tool - like a compiled language.

I think one reason for the movement toward Java and JVM style languages is  
that hardware is getting cheaper and cheaper, and developers cost the same  
or more.  With a 'simpler to write' 'quicker to write' language like Java  
(where you don't have to learn things like manual memory management) you  
can more easily train programmers, and they will be cheaper also.  Then,  
you can 'fix' any performance issues you have with better hardware, for  
less than the cost of training/paying a C/C++ developer to re-develop it.   
It makes business sense.

Regan

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