Kev's Development Toolbox

Maybe, according to an aricle in Wired.

OnJava.com has a great collection of interviews with four well known people in the Java world, and asks them each why they think Ruby could be the successor to Java.

• Bruce Tate has a book current published by O’Reilly, Beyond Java, that already gives his opinion of why Ruby is set to replace Java. His reasons? Ruby is the best of the alternative languages currently out there, but most important it has a driving catalyst in the form of the Ruby on Rails web framework, which is not only drawing a lot of attention, but is shoing how alternative approaches can drastically increase developer productivity.
• James Dunca Davidson, one of the original developers of Tomcat and Ant, has already used Ruby on Rails as the solution for client projets, and does not buy in to the idea that RoR is only for prototype/throwaway applications. He has implemented medium sized applications that have gone into production. The big selling point for him? Simplicity.
• Robert Cooper, OnJava.com blogger and Java developer, expresses his concerns with the Enterprise Java approach. Cooper says that the argument that Java has support for developing Enterprise applications is not a very compelling argument, as the features billed as ‘Enterprise’ are not needed in the majority of solutions.
• Bill Venners, the publisher behind the Java portal site www.artima.com, has recently added articles and information about Ruby on his website. His opinion though is although he feels Ruby has it’s place and it’s solutions, the Ruby on Rails framework has been over-hyped, and he currently does not believe the hype behind it

Google have launched a beta of a new online service, which they are calling ‘Google Base’

The service seems to be an online store of any information you can imagine, and allows users to post content, images, files, ads, etc, with attached keyword information so that it can be indexed and searchable by other users.

Microsoft are expected to launch their next-gen console next week, on Nov 22. They have confirmed a lineup of 18 new games for the new console.

I’m interested only because this is a glimpse into the future… with Sony’s monster of a machine, the PS3, due to launch next year, the XBox360 will show what is possible with this kind of horsepower. The interesting thing is that the PS3 is epxected to be even more powerful in turns of raw grunt than that the XBox360, so will it be a case of ‘anything you can do I can do better?’. Time will tell.

In the meantime, feast your eyes on the trailer videos on sites like IGN.com for the PS3 and the XBox360 – the games are sure looking pretty impressive.