Rick Goff

Is there any information on when beta exams for Java 8 might become available?

Where I live and work, when someone says simply "Java," I think they have in mind Java 5/6. How long do you think it will be before people, when they say, Java, can be presumed to mean the Java that supports Lambdas?

In your new book, how do you present the value proposition of internal iteration, as supported by the functional model, over external iteration as we've been doing in Java development?

Thanks,
Rick

Thank you for your book! I haven't read it yet, of course, but I've read your work before, so I'm confident this one will be helpful.

How do you imagine the impact of this turn toward functional programming to impact the various pieces of the Java ecosystem to which many of us have grown accustomed? For example, where does this leave Groovy? What will be the impact on Spring users? Will we design the division of work differently between the back-end system and front-end code like javascript?

Thanks,
Rick

Just a quick PSA: If you're hanging around this forum, then you might be interested to know that Manning's daily offer on this day half-off on several titles related to FP.

Hope that helps,
Rick

If I can ask you to represent the Scala perspective, I'd like to ask for your reaction to the Java 8 Lambda project. Are you flattered? Threatened?

Thanks,
Rick

Here's the link to the latest version:

http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~briangoetz/lambda/lambda-state-final.html

Oops, sorry Campbell. Just saw you had already included the link.

We have identified a set of coworkers who are interested in certifying on Java 7, and we'd like to form a "study group." Some of are OCPJP 5/6 and some aren't, so we're preparing for different exams. Any suggestions on how best to organize ourselves so that all of us have a good learning experience with little time wasted?

Thanks,
Rick

Thank you for writing your book. I look forward to reading it. Does your book offer any introduction or treatment of functional programming, its advantages for concurrency, and its growing relevance in the Java ecosystem?

Thanks,
Rick

I have to wonder if K/B have decided just to miss Java 7 and finish their book for Java 8.

Bert Bates is active on Javaranch. Bert, can you tell us anything about your plans for this book or others?

Thanks,
Rick

Clojure runs on the JVM, so it's useful anywhere Java is useful.

Hi, John. I'm probably best described as a Clojure groupie at this point. I cook Java for a living, but I just love Lisps, including Clojure. Anyway, it's interesting you chose to use the word Simple in your book title. As others have pointed out, Rich Hickey has sort of colonized that term with his written and spoken discussions of simplicity and accidental/intentional complexity. Did you consider titling the book _Clojure Makes Simple_?

If your book is intended as a gentle introduction for Java programmers, then it probably leads with the good news about interoperability. Which is, calling Java from Clojure is dead simple.

Java: new Account
Clojure: Account.

Java: "Hello World".length()
Clojure: (.length "Hello World")

Calling Clojure from Java is simple too.

Hi, Eric. I haven't had a chance to see your book yet but thanks for writing it. The title suggests to me that you're treating javascript as an "ecosystem," like when we talk about "programming java applications," which assumes a stack of languages and tools. Do I have that right?

In other words, at the risk of getting a "damn, you're stupid" from a certain predatory mammal, what languages are the topic of your book?

(Ducking)
Rick

It's tempting to someone who has always thought of programming from an "object-oriented" perspective to conquer their dissidence about new features by analogizing them to tools they recognize. If you're really interested in the value of Lambda expressions, you need to stop thinking like a Java programmer (exclusively), and start thinking like a problem solver who values concurrency and parallelism.

Ask yourself this: why has Lisp survived the entire first 55 year period of the history of programming? Maybe read a short intro to Lisp or Haskell, and see if you can find the appeal.

As Java programmers, we have conceded the inevitability of shared mutable state. What if we didn't?

I work in a large group of Java web app developers and we, of course, insist on descriptive variable names in our Java code. Many of my coworkers assume that this naming standard applies for all of the languages in our stack. But my opinion is that because almost all js variables are local - and their complete lifespan can be viewed within a single block - using brief names not just acceptable, but preferable, as it reduces noise. By the nature of functional code, the variable's significance usually is internal to the function, or to the larger mathematical context, rather than to the business concept reflected by the program's design.

What is your advice regarding naming conventions for javascript variables?

Thanks,
Rick