>Turning NOVL servers into good JAVA platforms is good for NOVL
I strongly agree, however:
Today a JAVA application might run 5 to 100x slower than an application written in C. Java is still interpreted. Many vendors are working on technology to speed it up. Only when that product is standard, i.e., add-on card or java compiler (self-defeating) will any java application remotely come close to the performance level of a C or ASM program.
If a hardware solution becomes available, you can bet your life that the vendor will port both NT and Netware. I would also guess that the NT port would come out FIRST because there are more NT seats.
If an intermediate-performance software solution comes out, then it had better be written by NOVL, otherwise, see above.
>As to writing apps for NOVL platforms in JAVA vs NLM's, that's ouside my area of expertise.
Writing NLMs are very ugly, when compared to JAVA. NLMs really don't support a GUI, and there are only a handful of tools out there to do it. You put 1,000 C programmers in a room, and I would bet you wouldn't find a single one who has ever written a NLM, compared to maybe half which have piddled, or are now fluent in JAVA.
NOVL certainly has the right idea here. Unfortunately, they don't control their destiny. JAVA today is just too slow and bulky. Corel learned this the hard way with their wordperfect office written in Java.
David |
