quote:Original post by HenryApe
*keeps mouth shut and hopes that Sun and Sony will answer the original question by showing their Java3D racer running basicly unmodified on both PC and PS2 at GDC or JavaOne this year*

...hey, one can always hope

Hmf - now you shut up?

As some people have already pointed out, languages that reduce development time wins out in the end. Of course, it never starts with games because they are pretty time critical applications, but in the end even game programmers change to higher level languages(they went from asm to C and are now moving from C to C++).

Java reduces development time because it gives you less freedom to commit stupid mistakes(messing up with pointers, reading/writing out of bounds, and forgetting to clean up your memory). Memory management is completely taken care of, pointers are hidden behind references, and you get an easily traceable message if you try to access an array out of bounds.

And to all those people who says that C++ can do this too: So what! Why keep reinventing the wheel, when the features you need are right there in Java?
Of course, maybe C# will kick Java off the market(who wins will probably be a matter of public relations expenditure), but the trend is still moving towards ever higher level languages.
(Btw, in Visual Studio .NET the docs keeps refering to converting "legacy" c++ apps to managed C++ / C#. )

But dont worry, C++ has plenty of life left in it, but id bet that in 5-10 years people will be posting messages like "do you still need to learn C++ to make games?", exactly like they are posting "do you still need to learn ASM to make games?" today

As to Java being slow, its just utter bullocks, the SWING components(the GUI-stuff to the uninitiated) are VERY slow that is true, but you dont need them for games. Alot of people seems to thinks this also indicates that Java programs are generally slow.