Re: Are Messages First Class Entities In Java?

[Manor Askenazi]

Hi Y'all!

I disagree with Ted that one can build a General Purpose simulation
environment without the concept of Methods as first class entities,
(at least not without some serious recompilation requirements), but
I agree with Christoph that the Reflection API seems to do the right
thing. I'm a bit worried that reflection was not part of the original
language design, specifically given the fact that it should be easier
in an interpreted language like JAVA. Nevermind. It's there now (or at
least it will be in December -- which, BTW, is just enough time to get 
really proficient with the language, n'est ce pas ;-) 

            The next question to worry about is speed. 

Any thoughts on that issue... (In other words, how could we construct a 
speed test for code which is similar or relevant to the way a Swarm-like 
system would work).

Manor.

PS> Two incredibly strong points for Java are:

    1. It's an INTEGRATED environment -> no need for TCL/TK, and all
       the ten million other pain-in-the-ass-free-unsupported-crappy
       libraries we need to compile against and depend on.

    2. I can't imagine an environment more conducive to sharing. 
       People could publish entire experimental setups -- you 
       could download the scientist's Postscript, or if you doubt
       the results, download his/her experiment... Ultra Cool!!!