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Welcome to the twenty-fourth issue of De Programmatica Ipsum, closing our second year with a celebration of the 25 years of Java. In this edition, Adrian tells the story of the success, the backslash, and the renaissance of Java (the programming language) and Java (the virtual machine;) Graham explains what the real story of Java is: ubiquity, stability, and long term outlook; and in the Library section, Adrian reviews what programming languages authors chose for their classic books. Hint: it was not always Java.
Back in the days when I had a day job in the .NET galaxy, I had a colleague who was a terrific C# developer… born in the island of Java. Given the looks I got from him, I think I was the first to point this fact to him. Or maybe I just pissed him off. In any case, here go some personal anecdotes around Java, stretching back 23 years.
Let me start with an admission: it took me weeks to work out what to talk about for the Java issue of De Programmatica Ipsum. There is just so much to it.
If you wanted to write a book about any subject related to computers, but not specifically about a particular programming language, which language would you choose? For example: if you wanted to teach programming concepts (algorithms, patterns) to an absolute beginner, which language would convey your thoughts better? Say, if you had to explain algorithms that could be implemented in any Turing-complete language, which one would you pick, and why?