Path: csiph.com!v102.xanadu-bbs.net!xanadu-bbs.net!feeder.erje.net!us.feeder.erje.net!news2.arglkargh.de!news.swapon.de!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!mx02.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Eric Sosman Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer Subject: Re: presentable Java features and programs Date: Mon, 06 Apr 2015 21:20:03 -0400 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 20 Message-ID: References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Date: Tue, 7 Apr 2015 01:19:10 +0000 (UTC) Injection-Info: mx02.eternal-september.org; posting-host="858a9d65d95f4ea4d355bd116aa2cdbf"; logging-data="4578"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX19EoKRLmTApD2NetzcN3RAa" User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:31.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/31.6.0 In-Reply-To: Cancel-Lock: sha1:O3vNcRRbySpysqgmaO8zkV1w3tw= Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.java.programmer:31508 On 4/6/2015 6:50 PM, Stefan Ram wrote: > A Java course participant asked me near the start of the > beginner's course: »What can one do with Java? Could you > show me three Java programs?«. "What can one do with Java? Nothing that can't be done in some other language. I'll give you a referral to our COBOL professor, or to a guidance counsellor if you'd like to change your major." What can one do with a hammer? One can build, or one can destroy. The building may be shoddy, and the destruction may be incomplete -- these depend on the circumstances and on the talent and application of the hammerer -- but basically, that's It. In short: Silly question. Something along the lines of "Why Java as opposed to SNOBOL?" might have been more worthy, but ... -- esosman@comcast-dot-net.invalid "Don't be afraid of work. Make work afraid of you." -- TLM