| Kelly, I disagree w/ the premise you state in the thread header. 
 >Basically, we don't need Java. C++ would have done just fine.
 
 I've spent 5 years programming in C++, and the last two years
 programming in Java (see my profile for a link to my project's
 web page at IBM, the San Francisco Project).  BTW, I'm a software
 engineer, not a marketing person, so don't contact me w/
 questions on San Francisco, see the web page.
 
 My personal opinion is that Java is far better than C++ for many
 kinds of programming, and lives up to its promise.
 We run our software on Win 95, NT, AIX, AS/400, Sun Solaris, etc...
 
 The only failures we have seen (regarding the ability of Java to
 run on various operating system platforms) were caused by bugs in
 a particular JVM that were unique to that operating system's JVM.
 In other words, a flaw in an implementation of a JVM, not a flaw
 in the Java language itself (or in its design).
 
 Java works, and while C++ is great too, Java has some definite
 advantages.  They each have their place, Java is not something
 you would want to write an operating system in.
 
 I'm not going to get into a debate on this, just
 stating my experiences w/ each language.  I personally intend
 to never program in C++ again, if I can avoid it...
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