No subject

on Windows and *ix, development should be cheaper with reimplemented 
facilities because those facilities are guaranteed to work the same way on 
both platforms. In contrast, something like Python, that uses native 
facilities, probably has to do a lot of internal massaging in certain 
places to get facility X to behave the same way on Windows and *ix.

To throw a bone to Python, I would presume that using native facilities 
and massaging where necessary requires fewer lines of code than the 
re-implementing the world approach. More lines of code == more bugs... 

But still, it can be maddening to have different behavior on different 
platforms with the same code base. YMMV...


> ... but I bet you must use the same vendor java and patch level on 
> whatever platform you're on.  Also, I don't doubt that such things 
> exist, I've just never experienced them, despite all the advertising to 
> the contrary.

Vendor? Yes. Patch level? Not that I have ever personally seen although if 
I relied on the timezone it would have been an issue. All of my code (so 
far) is based on Zulu time...


> Yes and no.  There are no illusions that you'll have to forward port 
> python for new versions, or do porting work to move an app to a new 
> platform.  There is no claim at all of WORA.

Agreed, same goes for Java. We're testing our Java 5 app against Java 6 
right now. It works surprisingly well, but there are differences that may 
force an update. So far, the differences appear to be minor.


> The question has always been for me "which instance of Java was this 
> WORA written for, and now I'll have to add /that/ version to my 
> infrastructure to go along with the other 5+ versions floating out 
> there."  Oh sure it'll run anywhere.... anywhere you have this exact 
> copy of the JVM for me.

[...]

I think that is where the fundamental misunderstanding about WORA is. *IF* 
the code was not written by a ham-handed developer and consideration was 
given to stuff like the "slash" problem, the basic WORA contract is that 
an app compiled against a given major JRE release will run on any platform 
that the major JRE release will run on.

Within a given major release, patch level should generally be irrelevant 
(your TZ example is a good counter example).

I have never heard anyone say that WORA means a Java 4 app will run just 
fine on a Java 5 JRE right out of the box. The only way that could work is 
if your Java 4 app was lucky enough to use the subset of functionality 
that did not get changed in Java 5.

..Ch:W..

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