Well, with Sun’s Java JDK 6 it looks like there’s finally a light shining at the end of the long, dark, and statically typed tunnel (you know, that tunnel with Tunnel written on the wall). In JDK 6, JavaScript will be included–from my quick read as a sample engine for the new script API.

Why is this good? Well, first and foremost it makes JavaScript “official”. Which means that it is quite likely that JavaScript will be allowed in JDK6-based projects where, say, Python (or Jython), is not allowed. It is good to know that a nice dynamically typed scripting language will be in your toolchest for the upcoming inevitable Java project you’ll have to do (all raise hands that didn’t make money with Java in the last year…).

Second, I always liked JavaScript’s design, but barring decent execution environments (there’s a reason that browsers gave JavaScript a bad name) and decent IDE’s (ActionScript comes to mind, but that’s closed source, commercial, etcetera - not a good basis for an IDE these days), I never tried to do anything serious with it. With JDK6 we’ll have a decent execution environment, and it is highly likely that the Eclipse folk will follow suit with JavaScript additions to their platform. It’s not that I really like Eclipse, but, hey, it sucks a whole lot less than development in the early Java days.

So, all in all a good thing - more choice for all the Java drones in the basements of financial institutions; a push for a language that deserves more attention; dynamic typing given the blessing by the JDK people; and I will finally get to play with JavaScript for serious work

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 12th, 2006 at 6:12 pm and is filed under Software Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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