First rule of proselytization is to respect the infidel

The idea behind the clash of civilizations post was that the Java (and C#, etc.) folks have different values than the dynamic languages camp, so arguments that are completely convincing to one side are considered irrelevant by the other side. They talk over each other's heads.

However, if someone wants to try to talk across that gap, and possibly help someone cross, I think that insults are not a good start. In defense of J2EE's complexity addresses the layered, many-pieced architecture of J2EE through a historical point of view. As a general rule, technology (especially software) is invented, popularized, and evolved to serve a specific need, even if that need may be quite broad. J2EE wasn't an accident! The problem with this blog entry is the argument at the end: that software engineering should be complex enough to keep out BOZOs. chromatic called him on it over on his O'Reilly blog, because, obviously, there are many reasons for a non- or anti-BOZO to use a simpler technology.

An example of a good way to communicate with your intellectual opponents is this post by Sam Griffith. He's the same writer who previously expounded on a Java macro language, which I linked to from my MOP post a while ago. He gives Java its credit, but at the same time explains how Java could learn some things from other languages/platforms that had similar goals. Another good example is the Crossing Borders series over at IBM developerWorks (even if it exhibits the annoying trait of non-Java content in a Java-centered context). Each page in the series demonstrates an alternative approach to the common Java way of accomplishing a task, and then it compares and contrasts. Some of the articles, like one on Haskell, honestly don't seem to offer much for the Java developer, and one on web development seems to basically suggest that we should go back to embedding straight Java code in our page templates. But the one on the "secret" sauce of RoR is enlightening.

Personally, I often read these articles with a half-smirk, because the pendulum swing here is clear: we started out writing web stuff in C, then switched to Perl, then Java, and now back to Python/Ruby/PHP or what have you. The other reason for my smirk is because I'm now forced to work in ASP.Net anyway. But if Microsoft can do anything, it's copy and clone, so there's work afoot to use IronPython for more rapid web work.