🚀 go-pugleaf

   >And can someone tell me what is the big deal with this Java language ?

First Sun presented it as a language for the Web. Then they said that it was
a good general purpose C++ replacement. About two years earlier researchers
at Sun labs started searching for a language to replace C++: something
that behaved as Modula-3 but looked like C++. One of the Modula-3 designers
Mick Jordan was even hired by Sun labs. Basically it is safe (no fiddling
with pointers, automatic garbage collection), which is convenient for
general purpose and a must for distributed programs (i.e. the program travels).

   Modula-3, I know very little about mod-3.  I've read a little about it in 
   Dobbs, it looks a lot like C++ with some Ada mixed in.

You may want to read more about M3 from http://www.vlsi.polymtl.ca/m3.
It has the same expressiveness as Ada95 but with a 50 pages definition
instead of a 500 pages definition. It is simple safe and efficient and
is well suited for distributed applications. There is a free compiler for
most platforms and numerous libraries are available (user interface,
network objects...).



--

Prof. Michel Dagenais        http://www.vlsi.polymtl.ca/dagenais/home/home.html
Dept of EE and Computer Eng.        dagenais@vlsi.polymtl.ca
Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal     tel: (514) 340-4029