🚀 go-pugleaf

"Doug Rickard" <rickard@primus.com.au> wrote in message
news:39e3dfba@news.iprimus.com.au...
>
> I have a series of code libraries built up over a period of about 30+
years.
> I can generally put togethet a full client /server based data base system
to
> a customers specification in under an hour. My standard client code
skeleton
> runs on DOS, Win95/98/2000/NT, Linux/Unix, VMS, etc without alteration.

Yeah. If you have that much of an investment in legacy code, then changing
to anything else is a major step.

> However it looks
> like moving to Java means discarding libraries built up over 30 years and
> starting afresh.

I'd say so. I'm a C programmer myself, and good C code often involves doing
magic stuff with pointer arithmentic. It's the major technique that you use
and java simply doesn't have it.

> Code reusability has always been my motto, and all my
> existing libraries have been used over and over many times, even though
they
> have been written in a wide range of languages. The Java concept seems to
be
> that you can only reuse Java code, and only for Java applications.

Yep. Pretty much. You can integrate java and other languages with JNI: the
"Java Native Interface". This allows you to write high-level stuff in java
but the workhorse libraries in something quicker. Perhaps that would ne
something fruitful to look at.


> >If there are reasons you were
> > looking at Java, specifically, they are probably still good. However,
> > learning the APIs and the Java-ish way to accomplish things is a
> significant
> > task, and not to be underestimated.
>
> Yes, trying to evaluate the balance of the steep learning curve vs. any
> productivity improvements is a difficult one.

Yep. I decided a while back that I wanted to move out of MS-Access (which
was where I was headed) and switch to Java. It was a risk, and a career
choice.

> > Or you can hire me <g>.
>
> Maybe once upon a time.

It was worth a shot. :-)

> These days I still act as an adviser to many companies just
> for the fun of it, otherwise I would go crazy. I love people coming to me
> with a problem that they think is insoluble, and then showing them a
working
> prototype in under an hour.

I know the feeling. That's one of the big payoffs of things like MS
Access.The kudos.  When you do something spectaclar in Java, only other Java
coders appreciate it.

> Thanks for the discussion. Much appreciated.

Cheers.

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