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Comment by w1ntermute | Hacker News Reader

I don't understand the hatred of Java and love of JS. Is Java not open source? And isn't Android open source as well? Note that Google apps are not part of the core of Android.

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From my perspective, JS is more more enjoyable to use when writing UIs. Java's strictness is not nearly as useful for UI work than it might be for other domains, and Javascript's first-class functions greatly simplify event-based work (which is much of what happens in a UI). Also, JSON is painless to use in JS, while Java will again get bogged down in its type system -- if you use JSON as a transport format then yet another plus for JS. Java is great for the server, but I would never want to write a UI using it.

Java is not under a fully free license, as it is restricted on mobile platforms, hence the whole legal action between Oracle and Google.

> I don't understand the hatred of Java and love of JS.

I don't hate Java, but I hate to write the same application over and over again, one for every platform out there:

- the desktop web

- the mobile web

- iOS

- Android

- Windows Phone

- ...

With JS there is a little hope that we well be able someday to write the app once, and make it work on every device out there, if it is from Apple, Google, Microsoft, Samsung or whoever wants to enter the market next.

We are almost there, but we need hacks like PhoneGap/appMobi to make it work, and it's not optimal at the moment.

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