Ok, I know. This will get some people steaming. You may not want to continue reading if that’s you. I’m sure that your assumptions are that I’ve never given Java a chance. I’ve never worked with Java long enough to make any sort of real assessment. I’m not a real programmer… blah blah blah. Ok. Sure yeah. I’m not going to try to convince you of anything. I’m sure you’ve found Java just wonderful for your research paper or whatever pet project you’re working on. That’s great. You know so much. Like I said. You may not want to continue reading.

For those of you who can hear it, here’s the point. Why use a language that tries to be everything to everyone when all it does is suck the joy out of being a software engineer. Remember when programming was fun? If you don’t, then you’ve never used anything but Java.

Why do I need to invoke a Factory every time I want just a simple object? Why are there no good GUI design tools–and please, don’t tell me about your favorite GUI design tool. Frankly, they all suck in comparison to pretty much everything else out there. And that’s another thing, why does a GUI based Java application window, when restored from being minimized for several hours, respond so sluggishly?

Java is not fun. It is not exciting. It is not enjoyable. It just makes you grumpy. If you find it fun, I dare you to to tell me how. Go ahead. Put it in the comments now. Let it be known how Java is so fun. Seriously!

I admit that there is no perfect dev environment. They all have their quirks, even my new favorite–xcode on the Macintosh/iPhone, but I just can’t understand the madness. Why do people insist on defending Java–this lousy programming language that is the basis of more once-hot-now-abandoned frameworks than anyone can keep track of. If you don’t believe me, take a quick survey of the latest posts about Java over at Reddit’s Programming Section. Here’s a smattering:

• In Defense of Java
• Is Java Dying? (Please, I hope so!!)
• The World Has Gone Mad
• Java != Slow
• Complaints I’m Seeing About Java
• Just For Fun

All of these posts are actually not bashing Java. The writers like the language. What they are doing, however, is defending it. Why? Because it needs defending. It’s horrible.

What’s fun about programming is problem solving. Sure enough, you’ll spend a lot of time solving problems when you use Java, but they are not programming problems–they are environment problems. Sure, you can write that web app once you’ve decided which lame web framework is the least bad of them all. But then you’ll find that setting up the least bad framework will take you a full day or longer and then it might not work properly once you deploy it. Oh yeah, and where are you going to deploy it? Not on a shared hosting web server. You’ll have to go co-lo and administer the box yourself if you want it to run Tomcat or some other web app server.

… and I could go on, but why?

If you want to have fun writing code… If you want to get your soul back, start writing for the Mac or get the new iPhone SDK and start writing code for it. For that matter, start writing for 8-bit embedded systems. That’s more fun than Java and probably easier. And for those of you who just at that moment thought about suggesting embedded Java for 8-bit micro-controller programming, you need to put your laptop down right now and seek help. Seriously. Call somebody. You are not well.

If you are wondering what’s fun that I am doing these days, take a look at my other blog Cocoa Is My Girlfriend. Here are a few of my latest posts:

• Core Animation Tutorial: Dashboard Effect
• Core Animation Tutorial: QTMovieLayer and Image Animation
• Cocoa Tutorial: File Copy With Progress Indicator
• From Hacker to microISV: Custom File Formats

I noticed when I visited the site this note in bold at the top:

Please Donate! Our bandwidth is at record levels: 29 GB in March, and donations do not even come close to covering our costs. If you appreciate our work, please take a minute to send a donation.

I do appreciate their work myself, but it’s mainly because I would send more people, new programmers that is, to them–which in turn is what is giving them the problem of using too much bandwidth in the first place.

To the folks over at Cocoa Lab, this statement really makes you sound desperate. I hope you can get the support you need, but when you give away content for free, a statement like this suggests that maybe your ultimate intention wasn’t to give it away, but rather to give it first so that people may donate. If this is a business model for you, it looks like it’s not working out the way you expected, so, with the deepest sincerity, I thought I might offer a few possible solutions to your predicament.

• Talk to a publisher. This is really good content that you could probably sell. Show it to a publisher and see what they think. I’ve heard of publishers that *may* be accepting proposals from Mac Programming authors
• Get cheaper webhosting. There is this company called 1and1 that provides shared hosting (which would work fine for the content you are providing) and give you 2.5TB, yes that was TERABYTES!!, of transfer bandwidth per month for the affordable price of $9.99 per month. You can sign up at 1and1 now. And yes that link is my affiliate link. I will get a kickback if you sign up!! That’s not a sales pitch–just a disclaimer.
• Convert the site to a blog site. If you make your site into a blog rather than a book and continue to add new content, the benefit to the Cocoa development community continues to grow. It’s great with the content that’s there now, and to those who haven’t checked it out yet there is a *ton* of content, but keep it coming.

I write this not to chastise, but to be helpful. I hate to see good content producers go un-rewarded for their efforts. The solution, however, is either to change your approach, or change your expectations. Best regards to the BecomeAnXCoder writers. Keep up the great work.

Well, my wife laughed (ok, laughed is a little strong. I think she smiled… maybe), but now every time I do a blog post I get this song in my head. So, without further ado, this post is live, bring on the comments… Listen to it on iTunes.

For other misheard songs, check out KissThisGuy - The Archive of Misheard Lyrics

This is quite interesting to me as I have a product release that is imminent. Well, maybe not imminent. The code is almost done. Now I need to write some copy, figure out the PayPal IPN, incorporate Sparkle… etc. etc. Ok. Nevermind. It’s not imminent.

Anyhow, thanks for the post Scott. This is good stuff.

That was really fine because we were all only going for the free software. I’ve gotta say, though, that the sessions were nothing but big snooze-fests. Maybe the developer track was better, but wow. ZZzzzzzzz.

After attending one session, we went to a different track to see if it was any better. Had to leave within a few minutes for fear that the enthusiasm with which these folks presented their topics was enough to make one’s mind seize up from inactivity (doesn’t work that way, but I’m bad at analogies. Work with me here).

Ok. I exaggerate. When we did duck out of the second session early, much to our surprise and delight, we found that they were handing out the goods without requiring the session evaluations. Sweet! We grabbed the software and got outta there. The software included Visual Studio 2008 (Standard), SQL Server 2008, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Vista Ultimate Edition.

I haven’t done any Windows development in a while, but should the time come again that I need to, I will have the latest software. It was worth the trip, but only for that reason. The presentation was, well… lacking.

Don’t think they have that problem on that other platform.

That’s very geeky… and cool!

Get more information at Toni Westbrook’s website and here is more about his Shredz64.

iWeb Buddy allows you to have multiple domain files with iWeb so that you can keep your sites separated into their own files. iWeb Buddy also post processes web pages created in iWeb; allowing the user to add Google Analytics, Social Bookmarking, Haloscan comments and custom HTML code to your website automatically.

In addition, iWeb Buddy remembers your settings, account numbers, etc. making it easy to update your website whenever you make a change in iWeb.

With iWeb Buddy, a user can “monetize” their websites that they have created in iWeb by being able to track the traffic on their sites, add custom html code for shopping carts and more.

Explains Marcus Zarra, owner of Zarra Studios, “iWeb is a great website design application. It is geared for the consumer but it is so close to being truly viable for professionals to use but it is missing a few key features - iWeb Buddy brings those features to iWeb.”

Features:
* Use multiple “domain” files with iWeb
* Add Google Analytics to your website
* Redirect your RSS feeds to sites like Feedburner
* Fix the RSS links on your iWeb blog pages
* Add Social Bookmarking to your blog posts
* Add Haloscan comments to your pages/blog posts
* Add Custom code to your web pages (WITHOUT IFRAMES)
* Add Mint site tracking to your webpages

Pricing and Availability
iWeb Buddy is available today for $25.00 USD for a single user license. A family license is also available for $35.00 USD. A demonstration copy is fully functional for the first 30 days and can downloaded from Zarra Studios website.

Congratulations on this release, Marcus and Zarra Studios!

I made the switch to the Mac along with a job change back in June of 2007 and I have to say that I am glad I did. It’s not to say that there aren’t good tools for programmers on Windows, but there is most definitely a different approach to everything from the kinds of applications that you build to the way you build them on the Macintosh. These differences in some areas are subtle, but in others they are monumentous.

Core Animation, for instance, a technology that enables programmers to use animation to provide users with visual feedback of many different sorts (e.g. change window frame dimensions and watch the window change in steps rather than having the frame update instantly), is really groundbreaking. It’s not something that you see in Windows programming. There are many other technologies that have a similar appeal. Some frameworks that I’ve used such as WebKit–a framework for building web applications, or QTKit–a framework for building multimedia applications based around QuickTime, are exciting and interesting to work with.

I have made predictions in the past that haven’t come true, so when I make a prediction, you ought to take it lightly. However, on this one I feel pretty confident. Apple just gets doing technology elegantly and they’ve made their tools and libraries available to everyone so that anyone who takes the initiative can build elegant software themselves. This fact, I think, will soon have a snowball effect that will start brining programmers from the Windows world in droves. Considering the disappointment that Vista is and the fact that Microsoft doesn’t even seem to like it, Windows programmers are going to start looking for ways to deepen and broaden their toolsets and even consider new platforms such as the Mac.

So what are the hurdles to entry? I think the following list pretty well summarizes it:

• The cost of a Mac. I’ll put this one out there even though I don’t agree with it. To get a decent professional laptop, you’ll pay at least as much if not more to get similarly equipped systems to the MacBook Pro line. The MBPs were just recently upgraded and the price is actually excellent for the specs you’re getting
• The cost of the development environment. Oh wait… XCode is free and comes with every new Macintosh. Scratch that!
• Objective-C uses square braces. Well, you will need to learn a new language. Just take it by the horns and go for it. It’s not that hard and once you become proficient with it, you’ll prefer it. It’s very powerful and often intuitive.
• No real hurdles. There really aren’t any major hurdles to entry. Just get a Mac and start coding. It’s that easy. And if you need some pointers, take a look at my XCode 3.0 article to get your started. When you’re done with that, head on over to Cocoa Dev Central for some great tutorials or your can check out Cocoa is My Girlfriend a new site that Marcus and I put together.

If you are planning to switch or have just recently switched to the Mac, you should know that you are far more likely to find work building applications for consumers. Most of the work I’ve done over the years on Windows has been business software. This is one of the main differences. I think this will also shift over time, however, for right now, expect to build applications your mother might use rather than software your company might use. And if you have any questions as to what other benefits there are, talk to any successful independent Macintosh software vendor out there. There are lots of them and they do very well.