[ale] Ale Inc.? (was RE: [ale] surviving sans work

[Kevin Krumwiede]

>         I'd disagree.  It is meaningful to point out that if you're
> doing Java, you do it OOP and you're not given a choice (even Python
> (*shudder* :) will let you get away with being somewhat procedural for
> the main body of your program; at least for things on the order of
> `hello world').  It's meaningful that Java enforces strong typing
> (with all the benefits and hindrances that brings with it).

I agree that being forced to use OOP is annoying.  I the main body of my
programs usually resides in a class where everything is static, or else
simply local to the main method.  The weirdest thing in the world is a
program that creates an instance of itself in its own main method.  The
first time I saw that, it just twisted my brain in little knots and I
resolved never to do it. :-)

Joseph is right, too, about the need for something akin to C++ templates.
There's something in the works being pushed by a few for inclusion into Java
1.5, but that's a long way off.  As it is, Java's container classes store
everything as Objects -- the equivalent of void pointers.  As he said, this
can render Java's supposedly strong type-safety all but useless.



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