Rich Clients and Expensive Phones

Even after they finished writing it, the authors of Rich Client Programming: Plugging into the NetBeans Platform were arguing over who the target reader was, according to one of the authors, Geertjan Wielenga.

Their conclusion, I gather, was that you don't really need to know a lot of Java, but you have to want to question your own being. Wielenga brings more Heidegger and Nietzsche into his Java programming philosophy than most developers, but I'm with him. Back in 1984, when I dug into Apple's initial Mac developer documentation, Inside Macintosh, in which every new concept was defined in terms of some other new concept, I found myself questioning my own being repeatedly.

Those who suspect that Apple and Sun are growing closer and may do some deals will watch with care the Jobs reaction to Jonathan Schwartz's announcement that Sun's ZFS will become Apple's new file system when Mac OS X 10.5 ships this fall. Steve doesn't like people stealing his thunder.

Whether ZFS (Zettabyte File System, developed for Solaris, open-sourced, 128-bit, eliminates volume management) actually becomes the file system for Mac OS X or is merely supported in some fashion is something we'll find out Monday, when Steve takes the stage for his keynote address at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference. I'll post an update after that.

What we probably won't hear from Steve Monday is that the iPhone will support Java, according to the wise guys at RoughlyDrafted.com, who assert that "the iPhone needs Java like... a unicycle needs an extra wheel."

What, iPhone's not a rich client?

Posted by Mike Swaine at 12:35 PM  Permalink