Monday Oct 16, 2006

And Now For Something Completely Different

This is the last entry on this blog. After almost ten years with Sun and Java, it’s time to do something new. Today is my last day at Sun.

There are of course, plenty of potentially important things still going on in Javaland, like modules, dynamic language support and closures, but I know how long and painful a process it is to get any such initiative to fruition; so I leave that joyful task to others.

In particular, Alex Buckley (alex.buckley@sun.com) will be taking over the responsibility for the JLS and JVMS. He will have a blog at blogs.sun.com/abuckley, and I’m sure he’ll have wonderful tales to tell. Alex is young, enthusiastic, very knowledgeable - and polite as well. You’re in for a radical change.

Feel free to send me mail about Java at gilad.bracha@sun.com; I am safe in the knowledge that it will bounce; as of 5pm Pacific time today, gilad.bracha@sun.com will cease to be. If, on the other and you want an answer, send your queries, or comments, or suggestions for wonderful new features, to Alex.

I have a new, private blog. However since I won’t be responsible for Java anymore, you won’t want to read it.

Enough said. Good luck to you all - you’ll need it.

Gilad Bracha, Computational Theologist Emeritus

Comments:

Gilad --

I remember being at a talk you gave with Josh Bloch at JavaOne in 1999 on an early version of Java generics. (A long, painful road indeed, but well worth it!) It was an excellent talk.

Questions from the audience turned to other possible language features, and one fellow from the Java numerics group started passionately arguing for operator overloading. I cringed: a C++ refugee, I'd seen how horribly it could be abused, and loved Java for its minimality. And then, bless your curmudgeonly heart, you said something to the effect of "Java will include operator overloading over my dead body." At a time when people were falling over themselves to add every possible feature to their languages (recall that Perl was popular at the time), here was somebody fighting to keep features out: a smart, very sensible person beating back feature bloat, design by committee, and the careless enthusiasm of language dilettantes like me. "I'm glad this guy is out there defending Java," I thought."

You will be missed. I hope the new guy has a bit of curmudgeon in him, too.

Posted by Paul on October 16, 2006 at 10:22 AM PDT #

Sokath, his eyes uncovered.

Posted by Curt Cox on October 16, 2006 at 10:58 AM PDT #

Hi Gilead, What are you moving onto? By the way, nice sign-off.

Posted by Ricky Clarkson on October 16, 2006 at 11:01 AM PDT #

Gilad, fare well!

Posted by Peter von der Ahé on October 16, 2006 at 02:36 PM PDT #

good luck!

Posted by 159.226.64.33 on October 16, 2006 at 08:06 PM PDT #

Gilad, good luck!

Posted by Ivan Tarasov on October 17, 2006 at 12:00 AM PDT #

good lock

Posted by Deniz Oguz on October 17, 2006 at 03:24 AM PDT #

Good luck in your new life ! It has always been a pleasure to interact with you on language semantics, especially near generics. Will miss you. I still remember your article on mixin-based inheritance from yet another previous life.

Posted by Philippe Mulet on October 17, 2006 at 06:26 AM PDT #

Hi Gilad, it's been a pleasure working with you.

Posted by maurizio cimadamore on October 17, 2006 at 08:43 AM PDT #

All the best for the future. A big loss to Java. For instance, I think your tutorial on generics is a tour de force of technical writing, making a complex subject lucid to readers of all levels.

Posted by Jonathan Finn on October 17, 2006 at 04:29 PM PDT #

What to say to an outbound computational theologist? Vaya con dios.

Posted by Paul Brown on October 18, 2006 at 10:08 AM PDT #

Wherever you are and wherever you'll be,
The cynical unit is nam'ed for thee.
And lo, as you exit, stage right, from Java
Your ouput's still one thousand milliBrachas.

Posted by Josh Bloch on October 20, 2006 at 02:42 PM PDT #

This is going to bring tears down my eyes :|... Thanks for all your works on java, wish you good luck. We'll miss your tech blog.

Posted by rfeynman on October 20, 2006 at 02:42 PM PDT #

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