Can Java just shoot me?

[Robert L Cochran]

Charles Curley wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 20, 2007 at 10:30:46PM -0500, Tom Horsley wrote:
>   
>> On Tue, 20 Nov 2007 22:14:28 -0500
>> David Boles <dgboles at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>     
>>> Look at the drop down window and 'see Java JE' (that is what you are
>>> looking for right?) click
>>>       
>> No. I'm looking for whatever makes java work in firefox. I don't
>> have the slightest clue that "Java JE" is that thing (especially
>> when there are umpteen other choices containing the word Java,
>> and judging from what I've seen so far, its probably really
>> Java SE, not JE :-).
>>     
>
> Tom, you have to understand that Java folks always assume that you
> know their arcane argot and that you Just Know(tm) exactly what you
> want in all that alphabet soup. That's why about every time I get some
> of that stuff figured out, they go and change it on me. A lot of this
> is designed by people fired from the IRS for writing things too
> obscurely.
>
> It also applies to Java applications like Eclipse and packages like
> Struts.
>
> It isn't just the Sun folks. How the hell are we supposed to know that
> something called "icedtea" has anything to do with Java? People who
> name projects something "kewl" but that obscures the nature of the
> project are not thinking "user friendly".
>
> It gets worse. Don't try actually programming anything more complex
> than a command line "Hello World" program.
>   
I can barely do the Hello World program.

The jpackage.org documentation is so sparse, there isn't enough to 
publish in My Weekly Reader.

If it wasn't for Knute Johnson, I wouldn't have gotten the Java 6 Update 
3 JDK installed alongside of IcedTea. There isn't much in the way of 
practical, well-written, accurate guidance out there -- like Knute's for 
example.

So I entirely agree with Ton (the original poster) and Charles and I 
applaud Knute.

Bob Cochran