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IT Runs on Java 8

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Re: IT Runs on Java 8

#81

Post by phalangion »

NoInputSignal wrote: post #69
mzkply wrote: post #44

The HN front page is similar to any community. For example, a car site's homepage will be listing the latest supercars, expensive turbos, rims, whatever... while most readers are driving a $30,000 Civic. The best & brightest in tech are working with the best tools on the biggest problems, and that's what gets talked about, regardless of what the mass is doing.

This is implying the best & brightest drivers are driving tricked out super cars.

Right. It's not what all the best and brightest are doing. It's what people like to read about, and what we want to be doing, even if most of what we do isn't that.

Re: IT Runs on Java 8

#82

Post by paganel »

NoInputSignal wrote: post #69
mzkply wrote: post #44

The HN front page is similar to any community. For example, a car site's homepage will be listing the latest supercars, expensive turbos, rims, whatever... while most readers are driving a $30,000 Civic. The best & brightest in tech are working with the best tools on the biggest problems, and that's what gets talked about, regardless of what the mass is doing.

This is implying the best & brightest drivers are driving tricked out super cars.

Not a super-driver but Enzo Ferrari used to daily drive a Fiat 128 [1] . Nowadays the former chairman of the VW Group and a member of the family that controls Porsche has just paid $18 million for a custom-made Bugatti.

[1] https://youtu.be/lQSac0Jpz0Y

Re: IT Runs on Java 8

#83

Post by pandalicious »

matrix wrote: post #66

I think the author might not realize the substantial difference between working in a tech company (the HN audience) and in supporting roles in non-tech businesses. I have worked in both worlds, and it really just comes down to choosing the right tools for the job. In tech you're supposed to be on the cutting edge. That's part of what makes it fun and rewarding. However, if anybody feels lesser for working in non-tech…

I think you're overestimating how much development at tech companies is done using newer languages. Java is the dominant language at both Amazon and Google.

Re: IT Runs on Java 8

#84

Post by zten »

_ea1k wrote: post #73
mzkply wrote: post #44

The HN front page is similar to any community. For example, a car site's homepage will be listing the latest supercars, expensive turbos, rims, whatever... while most readers are driving a $30,000 Civic. The best & brightest in tech are working with the best tools on the biggest problems, and that's what gets talked about, regardless of what the mass is doing.

Are we just going to ignore the idea of paying $30k for a Civic? I hope noone is doing that.

You could pull it off by buying a Civic Type-R, which I think fits the theme.

Re: IT Runs on Java 8

#85

Post by pron »

The funny thing is that from a purely technological point of view, Java (even the 5-year-old Java 8 and certainly recent versions) is far ahead of most other stuff hyped on HN (as well as less hyped stuff). Virtually no other platform comes close to that combination of state-of-the-art optimizing compilers, state-of-the-art GCs, and low-overhead in-production profiling/monitoring/management. And much of the cutting-edge development and technological breakthroughs on these matters continues to take place in Java (disclosure: I work on OpenJDK full-time). Just in the past few years we've seen the release of open-source GCs with less than 2ms worst-case pause times on terabytes of heap (ZGC and Shenandoah), a revolution in optimizing compilers (Graal/Truffle), and there's an upcoming release to streaming access to low-overhead deep profiling (JFR). So Java is not only the safe choice for serious server-side software; it's also the bleeding edge.

Re: IT Runs on Java 8

#86

Post by hangonhn »

But to be fair, Java 8 to Java 12 (2014 to 2019) happened a lot faster than Java 6 to Java 8 (2006 to 2014). Being on Java 8 is not a bad thing because it's actually not that old.

Re: IT Runs on Java 8

#87

Post by lwb »

matrix wrote: post #66

I think the author might not realize the substantial difference between working in a tech company (the HN audience) and in supporting roles in non-tech businesses. I have worked in both worlds, and it really just comes down to choosing the right tools for the job. In tech you're supposed to be on the cutting edge. That's part of what makes it fun and rewarding. However, if anybody feels lesser for working in non-tech…

> I think the author might not realize the substantial difference between working in a tech company (the HN audience) and in supporting roles in non-tech businesses.

I too underestimated this -- a tech internship at ExxonMobil was such a vastly different experience from a tech internship at Facebook that they could barely both be considered the same field.

Re: IT Runs on Java 8

#88

Post by jressey »

All I know is that reading HN and responding to what I've learned has made my salary go up, up, up in the last 5 years. Partially by recognizing there are so many cool things out there that pay well. You can be defeatist and say "I'll never learn all of this,' or you can be clever and figure out the things that are worthwhile to learn.

I went from working in a boring insurance shop to one of the fastest growing tech companies in America. Had I not paid attention to HN, that wouldn't have happened.

Re: IT Runs on Java 8

#89

Post by usermac »

Veen wrote: post #79
usermac wrote: post #62

That was an enjoyable read. Just funny. Alright, I might not be a "dark" employee but we do run our shop on... FileMaker! Since 1993 as best I can tell.

I had no idea FileMaker was still around. Thirty-four years old and still being developed and used. Seems out-of-character for Apple to keep it going.

It's pretty sweet. I just fielded a full online order system and did it in 30 calendar days flat. It wins five-star reviews from my users and raving compliments.

Re: IT Runs on Java 8

#90

Post by sonnyblarney »

pron wrote: post #85

The funny thing is that from a purely technological point of view, Java (even the 5-year-old Java 8 and certainly recent versions) is far ahead of most other stuff hyped on HN (as well as less hyped stuff). Virtually no other platform comes close to that combination of state-of-the-art optimizing compilers, state-of-the-art GCs, and low-overhead in-production profiling/monitoring/management. And much of the cutting-e…

This - Java 8 'feels' legacy, but in so many ways it's miles ahead of upstarts.

Sometimes we forget that the JVM (almost) = Java and that thing is a beast.

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