Interview: Smalltalk Dave about Programming Languages, SOA, MDA and the Web

Posted by Sadek Drobi on Apr 30, 2008 03:10 PM

Community

Architecture

Topics

Web 2.0,

SOA Platforms,

Modeling,

Dynamic Languages,

Programming

Tags

Web 2.0,

BPEL

In an interview at OOPSLA conference, Dave Thomas, the managing director of Object Mentor and founder and past CEO of Object Technology International Inc., discusses several trends in today’s industry.

He talks about the rise of Java and the reasons behind it and gives some thoughts on SOA and Model Driven Architecture. He explains, for instance, why he would qualify SOA of “marketechture” rather than architecture. With regard to MDA, Dave does not believe in defining models that can be used for code generation but rather in code being itself an executing model.

He also explains why, according to him, every vendor will be pushed to support dynamic languages:

I think we're seeing all of them looking at using the different dynamic languages because people can think faster in those languages and there is typically less code, so I think they are all going to have to play there because programming Java and C# are kind of system level programming languages.

Furthermore, Dave Thomas outlines opportunities that he sees in the web as a platform:

I certainly see that having the infrastructure that Amazon has and making that available, it means that you don't have to worry. […] You get instant scalability that wasn't there. […] The other thing is that you can do these mash-ups, if there are services there and script them together, that you create new business opportunities very quickly by combining a travel service and naps and various things together and offering that.

And he points out that, in his opnion, browsers are the biggest obstacle for the web as a platform today and provides some hints on how it could be overcome.

To have more insights on these issues and more, watch “Smalltalk Dave about Programming Languages, SOA, MDA and the Web »

1. Back to top

   No Favorite books question?

   Apr 29, 2008 11:32 AM by Erick Dovale

   Very interesting and engaging interview. Floyd, How come you did not ask for Dave's favorite books?

   Reply

2. Back to top

   Re: No Favorite books question?

   Apr 29, 2008 2:19 PM by Floyd Marinescu

   I thought I had beat him with enough questions. :)

   Reply

3. Back to top

   Re: No Favorite books question?

   Apr 29, 2008 3:58 PM by Ken Marshall

   Thanks Floyd and Dave from burned out C programmer of the 90s working his way back in... :)

   Reply

• Older >