[asterisk-dev] "Digium development team" - not Asterisk dev team - Java

[jon pounder]

Nick Lewis wrote:
>> java is great for cross platform code, but is inherently not a 
>> real time language. you can't even control garbage collection 
>> yourself so the interpreter could pick the worst possible time 
>> to do it. application maybe, channel asking for trouble.
>>     
>
>   

Shame on you for even comparing java and c in that respect.

C is a compiled language and compiles down very efficiently to assembler 
but bridges the gap where cross cpu use is needed that assembler can not 
do. Java is not compiled at all, (byte code is not compiling) and does 
not come close to approximating the machine code at its high level to 
start with.

Laziness is not doing your own memory cleanup and allocation, 
typecasting, and all those sorts of things. Attitudes like this are what 
drive the demand for higher and higher priced hardware instead of just 
doing things efficiently and getting the most from what is available. If 
asterisk is not real time what is ?

> I don't think we should get too hung up on the real-time nature of
> asterisk. A typical example of the real-time aspects is that rtp packets
> need to go out every 20ms with less than say 10% jitter. With modern
> processors handling billions of lines of machine code a second this is
> not a very onerous real time requirement. Furthermore asterisk runs on
> non real-time operating systems what can switch away from asterisk tasks
> at any inopportune moment so it is unlikely that a bit of gargage
> collection is going to be significant.
>
> I am not convinced that using java for channels is asking for trouble.
> These predominantly deal with signalling rather than media and
> signalling protocols are very resistant to delays with timeouts
> typically measured in seconds.
>
> I think there are two types of developer in open source - firstly, those
> that want to develop code to do cool things, to contribute, to improve
> their skills and to gain kudos and secondly those that have to develop
> code to maintain their business. Only the latter will bother with c. The
> bright young things in the former category are put off by it.
>
> Let me draw a historical comparison. In a former generation the bright
> young things were put off by 8051 assembler even though many realtime
> applications were written in it at that time. They lazily wanted instead
> to use c and to offload task switching to an operating system. The
> hardware soon became capable and cheap enough to make this possible. The
> same has now happened to java.
>
> -- N_L
>
> _____________________________________________________________________
> This message has been checked for all known viruses by Star Internet delivered through the MessageLabs Virus Control Centre.
> _____________________________________________________________________
> Disclaimer of Liability
> ATL Telecom Ltd shall not be held liable for any improper or incorrect use of the  information described and/or contained herein and assumes no responsibility for anyones use  of the information. In no event shall ATL Telecom Ltd be liable for any direct, indirect,  incidental, special, exemplary, or consequential damages (including, but not limited to,  procurement or substitute goods or services; loss of use, data, or profits; or business  interruption) however caused and on any theory of liability, whether in contract, strict  liability, or tort (including negligence or otherwise) arising in any way out of the use of  this system, even if advised of the possibility of such damage.
>
> Registered Office: ATL Telecom Ltd, Fountain Lane, St. Mellons Cardiff, CF3 0FB
> Registered in Wales Number 4335781
>
> All goods and services supplied by ATL Telecom Ltd are supplied subject to ATL Telecom Ltd standard terms and conditions, available upon request.
>
>