>>It reminds me of Java, "Write once, debug everywhere".
>
>Actually, Sun's Java is quite portable. It's the 3rd party compilers that break. But Sun's java is limited compared to the extensions that other companies offer.

I beleive that ANSI C is also 100% portable - just recompile under the other OS. But who's using ANSI C? Who wants to restrict himself to the lowest common denominator of all OS?

IMHO (and correct me if I'm wrong), Java is worst. Now you also have to have the right version of the Java Virtual Machine as well! Ok, so you just got the JVM version 1.1, so you start using the new features - but then, it's not portable anymore; not everyone has the version 1.1 and it might not even be available yet on some platforms.

Lastly, I have yet to see a interpreted program (VB, VFP, Java, etc.) that is actually fast and that does not make me say "Didn't my 8088 go as fast in it's time?" as opposed to compiled languages (C, Pascal, assembler). Granted, I haven't seen many Java programs, but the example that comes to mind is Netscape. Made me wonder if my computer had become a 286!

Ok, so I'm ranting... I just can't figure out what's so great about those things - and the whole "thin-client" fuss, btw! (Internet explorer takes 10Mb in my computer's memory right now, and all I have is the UT - wow, that's thin; my last computer didn't even have that much memory, but that's another story!)

Sorry for the ranting, I'm sure someone will give me excellent reasons why Java is better! :)