Coffee Clashing

The beauty of the Java Dive isn't just in the quality of its coffee or conversation -- it's the quantity of both. What with retirees stretching house joes, students hunched over laptops, body-pierced tattooed generation-whatevers chugging cappuccinos, and yuppies double-parking SUVs to dash in for decaf lattes with skim milk and Sweet'N Low, it's easy enough for a caffeine-stoked, fly-on-the-wall editor like Yours Truly to pick up on everything from world affairs to new silverware. Here's a recent sampling:

At one table, NT versus Linux was the flame du jour, specifically, the recent NT/Linux shootout conducted by benchmarking firm Mindcraft (http://www.mindcraft.com/). Not only did Microsoft pay for the comparison, but the tests reportedly took place in a Microsoft lab with the assistance of at least one Microsoft contractor. Take a guess on the results. When the results were published, the uproar was such that Mindcraft decided it might be a good idea to rerun the tests. Not good enough, said Linux insiders Alan Cox, Bob Young, and Linus Torvalds, since the tests were designed from the git-go to highlight NT's strengths. Furthermore, Linux experts weren't allowed onto the testing site, while presumably NT experts were. By the time you read this, a third cycle of benchmarks supposedly will have been run.

Back in the corner, the definition differed on what exactly constitutes a "compelling app." For some, it is simply a program you've just got to have. For others, it's software for which you are willing to mortgage the house, chuck your day job, and trust your future to. In this sense, a lot of the pen-based computer applications of the early '90s come to mind. Today's "compelling" apps are, in general, being defined by the Internet and, in particular, by online services such as auctions, such as eBay (http://www.ebay.com/) and investments, like E*Trade (http://www.etrade.com/). If statistics are to be believed, a lot of people have bet their back 40 on these forms of e-commerce. eBay, for instance, claims that 80 percent of its hundreds of thousands of transactions are being made by 20 percent of its users -- entrepreneurs who are making their living working full-time at eBay-based businesses. You have to assume that E*Trade has spawned similar numbers.

Then there were the college professors grousing about recent assaults on Freedom of Speech and the principle of academic independence. At issue was a guest editorial in The Kansas City Star -- written by a University of Missouri-Kansas City law professor -- which criticized the Missouri legislature for consistently making mistakes when writing laws. In retaliation, Stalin-wannabes in the House, led by a Rep. Dennis Bonner, proceeded to "send a message" to critics by stripping nearly $3 million from the university's budget -- even though the professor wrote the editorial as a private citizen. These bozos in legislative clothing then cheered when the measure passed. Unable to rein in his stupidity, Bonner went on to send letters to the legislature in the neighboring state of Kansas, urging it to cut funds for the city in which the law professor resides and serves on the city council. Thankfully for the citizens of Missouri, the state Senate stepped in to restore sanity and funding. In the end, the only thing these unAmerican legislators in the Show-Me state showed is a new definition of petty brainlessness.

It was during this kind of give and take that a sleepy-eyed Dr. Dobb's reader (well, it was a little after noon) stumbled over to my table and said "Hey, if you guys at DDJ are so smart, why don't you have a list server?". For once I had a ready answer -- "We do," I replied. Yes, we've set up a list server that lets us periodically send e-mail announcing new projects and features. To subscribe to the list, go to http://www.ddj.com/maillists/ and complete the online form.

Emboldened, this same reader, who makes his living programming 60 hours a week, then proceeded to express irritation with Howard Rubin (http://www.hrubin.com/), a professor of computer science at the City University of New York and a research fellow with the META Group (http://www.metagroup.com/), and his recent "IT Trends '99" report that suggested U.S. programmers are less productive but more expensive than programmers elsewhere. Using the metric of average number of lines coded per year, U.S. programmers are coding at the rate of 7700 lines, while developers outside the U.S. are sailing along at the rate of 16,700 lines annually. Since I haven't read the complete report, I'll withhold comment for now. However, based on a speech Rubin presented at a DDJ event last year, there's a lot more involved than what recently made the headlines. If I recall Rubin's 1998 comments correctly, for instance, Canadian programmers outstripped U.S. programmers in the total number of lines, but also introduced more errors. In short, Rubin said, U.S. programmers led the way when the metric includes more factors than just raw code.

My new friend was less forgiving, however, and since we promote family values here, I'll hold off his exact words. Let's just attribute his grumpiness to not yet having that first cup of coffee for the day.

Jonathan Erickson
editor-in-chief

[email protected]