(keitai-l) Re: Wireless Watch No. 46 (from J@pan Inc magazine) 03/04/2002 [editors@japaninc.com]

From: Curt Sampson <cjs_at_cynic.net>
Date: 03/05/02
Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.4.43.0203051747560.2439-100000@angelic.cynic.net>
You seem to have got a rather twisted view of things, here. Let's
look at the situation.

As far as the Java core langauge and APIs go, I don't see any reason
for the U.S. to have an advantage. The stuff is mature, stable,
and plenty of documentation is available in Japanese. If you are
a developer who speaks only Japanese, and you can't learn Java and
the core platform, well, that's about equivalant to an American
who can't do the same thing with the resources available in the U.S.

The idea that even the core stuff is being developed only in the
U.S. is Just Wrong. People from all over the world participate. As
it happens, for example, the guy who was the lead designer of JDBC
works in Sun's Yoga office, ten minutes down the Den-en-toshi line
from Shibuya.

Other parts of this particular platform, such as the i-Appli-specific
stuff, are being made only in Japan, and a lot of the documentation
is available only in Japanese.

Only in Japan, at least for the moment, can you even test an i-Appli
on a real phone.

Now please explain to me, in concrete terms, what advantage American
developers are supposed to have here.

cjs
-- 
Curt Sampson  <cjs_at_cynic.net>   +81 90 7737 2974   http://www.netbsd.org
    Don't you know, in this new Dark Age, we're all light.  --XTC

On Tue, 5 Mar 2002, Sam Joseph wrote:

>
> Curt Sampson wrote:
>
> >On Tue, 5 Mar 2002, Sam Joseph wrote:
> >
> >>seems to me it give the Americans the advantage of already being
> >>well-versed in the target software platform....
> >>
> >There's no reason for the Japanese not to be just as well versed
> >in it. Especially given that Japanese is the only foreign language
> >deemed important enough to get its own translation of the API.
> >
> >I learned the basics of Java in a month, and it took me perhaps a
> >year of full-time use to get to the "pretty much an expert stage."
> >If the Japanese can't or won't do this, well, they're going to lose
> >no matter what language they pick.
> >
> I think you're just being arrogant and dismissive.  If a computer
> language is being created in the states and its development is being
> driven by American developers, it seems to be that American developers
> are likely to have an advantage working in it.
>
> You're inviting us to think that either Java is trivial to become
> proficient in, or that you are such a code god that it is trivial for
> you and if the Japanese aren't up to your standard then they deserve to
> lose out, i.e. either arrogant or dismissive.
>
> I find your argument unpleasant and patronizing, and wish you would stop
> taking that kind of tone because it irritates me and demeans yourself.
>
> >>, and the additional
> >>advantage of a large Japanese corporation paying whatever licensing fees
> >>to a large American corporation (Docomo -> Sun)
> >>
> >
> >They can always buy their JVM elsewhere, or write it themselves.
> >If buying it from Sun is the cheapest solution, isn't that the best
> >route for the company to take?
> >
> Sure if you only care about short term profits.  I'm not suggesting that
> Docomo should have gone elsewhere.  I'm just observing that comments
> like "the Japanese wireless developers are light years ahead" seem a
> little shallow when they are working with a software platform that is
> from the US.
>
> It seems to me that ultimately the wonderful lightyears ahead Japanese
> keitai will end up meaning very little outside Japan.  It will become
> just a footnote in the 2015 anti-trust trial of Sun, when 95% of the
> worlds wireless devices end up.  Or not.  At the end of the day like I
> actually care either way ...
>
> SAM
>
>
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>
Received on Tue Mar 5 11:04:25 2002