I have enjoyed the discussion lately among members of the C++ Standards Committee. A number of emails have circulated with the title “That Other C-like language.” The current owner of that title is Java. For a while it seemed that Java would displace all other programming languages (or so its proponents would have had us believe). Anything else was passè. But the winds of hype are fickle indeed, and Java, while still going strong, no longer gets the glitter it did in its first five years. In other words, it is being forced to mature, while other languages are all the rage, or trying to be (Python, C#, <your choice here>).
But maturity is a good thing. I’m sure that most of you would agree that maturity means, at least in part, knowing what you’re good at. While no one would suggest that Java is as mature as C++, let alone C, Java is finding its niche in the world of enterprise computing. Where I work it is the language of choice for network communication and data migration. And while the C++ gurus scoff at Java’s weaknesses, they are seriously considering its large-scale development and deployment strengths as they plan the future of C++. You can depend on all of us here at CUJ to continue to provide insights as well as appropriate criticism on Java as well as on all other “C-like languages.”
The Journal continues to mature as well, and that means change. With this issue we bid a bittersweet farewell to Marc Briand, Editor-in-Chief. I first met Marc in 1993 at CUJ headquarters in Lawrence, Kansas (“yes, there are computers in Kansas,” remember?) when he had about two weeks under his belt as Managing Editor. In the intervening eight years his leadership has brought depth, maturity, and innovation to this journal. An electrical engineer by trade, he also is an accomplished writer and a genuine “people person.” We were extremely fortunate to have someone of Marc’s ability and devotion on board, and I will personally miss him very much. We at CUJ express our thanks to Marc for his legacy of excellence and wish him well as he returns to the engineering industry.
Chuck Allison
CUJ Contributing Editor