Dear Java,

Dear Java,

It’s hard for me to write you this note. Heck, we haven’t really had a chance to get to know each other, what with all of my time spent with other languages like Perl and C. You know that I secretly thought we could make something wonderful together, but I’ve realized that it’s time for me to move on. We’re growing apart, you and me. When I first saw you, I thought you were quite a wonderful language; what with your cute little logo, and all the promise of being so completely portable. I thought we could go everywhere: the server room, the web browser, the Palm Pilot. You promised me the world, and I fell for you. But lately it seems like you haven’t made good on your promises. You’ve become complicated and onerous. People talk about how you’re so inflexible, and how you’ve become so complicated. I thought we could get along, and maybe have some fun, but I’m even starting to find my fun elsewhere. I think we need to stop kidding ourselves and realize that it will never work out. I’d rather be with your friends Ruby, Perl, and Python than you. Heck, even PHP is more exciting to me than you. You had so much promise for me, and I trusted you’d follow through, but you never did. You always started off nice and simple, but then things got really complicated in a hurry. Containers? Struts? Springs? Frameworks? Ant? By the time I thought I figured you out, you changed. You became bigger than even you could handle. Well I’m done. Let the others fight over you, but I’m done fighting. I’m through wondering if you’ll ever change, or if I’ll ever fall in love with you again. I can’t go on thinking I’ll ever understand you, because it’s just not going to happen. You don’t even know what you want to be anymore: embedded, web application, or application. It doesn’t matter to you. You think you’re just like C, but you’ll never be C. Just stay on your cellphone where you belong. Let the others have their way with you, because I’m through. I’ve had my heart broken one too many times thinking that things would change with you, but nothing changes.

Goodbye, Java. You’ll find your books ad your things on the front porch. I’m done.

Craig

To do something well you have to love it. So to the extent you can preserve hacking as something you love, you’re likely to do it well. Try to keep the sense of wonder you had about programming at age 14. If you’re worried that your current job is rotting your brain, it probably is. — Paul Graham

Dear Python,

Pick you up at 8?

Love, Craig.