Elliotte Harold: As for new features in the language, most attendees were lukewarm at best, even when discussing sexy topics like closures. To the extent that the Java language wasn't meeting their needs, most attendees seemed to prefer learning a a new language entirely, such as Scala, rather than adding more features to the Java...

Dear Apple, I tried out Safari on Windows and have encountered a problem with the fonts used to display Simplified Chinese web pages. They look awful in Safari on Windows. Here's a side-by-side comparison. Obviously, Safari on Windows is not using the correct fonts for rendering Simplified Chinese pages. However, when I went to the...

Dear Apple, I tried out Safari on Windows and have encountered a problem with the fonts used to display Simplified Chinese web pages. They look awful in Safari on Windows. Here's a side-by-side comparison. Obviously, Safari on Windows is not using the correct fonts for rendering Simplified Chinese pages. However, when I went to the...

Brian walked in the office a moment ago, all disappointed. The keynote that Steve Jobs gave at the WWDC did not contain enough new stuff to satisfy him. However, Brian did mention the availability of Safari for Windows, which I downloaded immediately and am writing this blog entry in it: Aside from my "This is just like iTunes"...

Brian walked in the office a moment ago, all disappointed. The keynote that Steve Jobs gave at the WWDC did not contain enough new stuff to satisfy him. However, Brian did mention the availability of Safari for Windows, which I downloaded immediately and am writing this blog entry in it: Aside from my "This is just like iTunes"...

Eric Burke strikes again with a document template for the creation of essays of the "X Xonsidered Harmful" genre. This blog entry is an instantiation of that template. Here goes: _Document templates___ Considered Harmful Resolved: _Document templates_ _ is a poor choice for _documenting_the_design_of software systems______ and should...

Eric Burke strikes again with a document template for the creation of essays of the "X Xonsidered Harmful" genre. This blog entry is an instantiation of that template. Here goes: _Document templates___ Considered Harmful Resolved: _Document templates_ _ is a poor choice for _documenting_the_design_of software systems______ and should...

> > I would like to drop the requirement that in order for> a> > field or local variable to be accessible in nested> classes> > or local classes, it has to be declared final.> > That won't happen. It will confuse too many people when> the method's variable doesn't change.Then let the method's variable change. I think the restriction was there...

I would like to drop the requirement that in order for a field or local variable to be accessible in nested classes or local classes, it has to be declared final.

... these books have been published: (When I told Dale about the JavaFX Script announced at JavaOne 2007, Dale said: "It's not a real programming language until four books have been published." So Dale started a poll on the breakroom whiteboard. Here's the accumulated list of must-have books contributted by the combined mind...

... these books have been published: (When I told Dale about the JavaFX Script announced at JavaOne 2007, Dale said: "It's not a real programming language until four books have been published." So Dale started a poll on the breakroom whiteboard. Here's the accumulated list of must-have books contributted by the combined mind...

(Via Lambda the Ultimate) Bjarne Stroustrup: This paper outlines the history of the C++ programming language from the early days of its ISO standardization (1991), through the 1998 ISO standard, to the later stages of the C++0x revision of that standard (2006). The emphasis is on the ideals, constraints, programming techniques, and people that...

(Via Lambda the Ultimate) Bjarne Stroustrup: This paper outlines the history of the C++ programming language from the early days of its ISO standardization (1991), through the 1998 ISO standard, to the later stages of the C++0x revision of that standard (2006). The emphasis is on the ideals, constraints, programming techniques, and people that...

Eric brings up the important topic of how many spaces to type after a period. I learned to use a typewriter on a Royal(?) portable typewriter borrowed from the English department. It was an ancient typewriter even at that time. It must be from the 1920's. It has a typeface where the little circles of the number "6" and the number...

Eric brings up the important topic of how many spaces to type after a period. I learned to use a typewriter on a Royal(?) portable typewriter borrowed from the English department. It was an ancient typewriter even at that time. It must be from the 1920's. It has a typeface where the little circles of the number "6" and the number...