Java for ever

About 10 years ago I met Java. I was writing something in c++ while my friend was sitting behind me and searching some bug in his spaghetti like project. I remember as everybody cried then: "Why Java?". "Java is going to be a dead language". "I'm not going to write any good composed project in this language anymore".

Lucky me, I didn't get into this project. That would terrible still making some fixes in that code during all last 10 years. Today when I'm looking at job proposals, I feel like java's reputation is much better nowadays, then 10 years before. As I talk with any other programmers they never talk about c++. Sometimes the topic of the speach comes to ruby or python. But nobody thinks about those languages seriously. And what about java? Have you heard about android OS? Well, if you made any small, desktop java application, your code is already almost ready for android. Do you want to make any complicated web-site? Try some java applets! Need some nice media features? Then try some javaFX features - new release is on the way.

I also have heard somebody, as he said, that there are no new projects written in Java. All java projects come started in XX century, said ones my friend. That is almoust true. There are many great projects, that started previous century and are still alive. But also there are many new projects.

As example I can link a freeware project. This score editor is being build since 2005, but today is very popular. It has many features and it is still alive. And, however it's a freeware project, it seems it is going to make some money.

I don't know, why people are talking about java's end. I'm sure java is our future.

Why do we need score editors?

When did you write something with a pen and a simple piece of paper? Did you write a mail to your friend last year? Maybe last decade? No? Me too. But believe me, I know so many people that still write scores with a pen and a piece of paper. So maybe there is a difference between a music text and a simple text written in Latin alphabet? Is there any? Let's have a look.

In classical alphabet we have some characteres, we combine them into words. With words we build  sentences, then some paragraphs. Finally pages and a whole composition. We simply begin in the upper left corner and continue to the right. And again and again left-to-right. This is very easy. So what makes computer better? I think that there are two things:

1. Backspace key.
2. Easy copy-paste mechanism (as well as the backup possibility)

Let's forget about skills (yes, we live in the 20th century, but still for some people writing on a computer keyboard is not such obvious skill). Let's also forget about money (at least once!).

If so - is musical alphabet harder to be put into computer? I guess it's not. I've written some piece of music on a sheet of paper so many times. So many times I've had problems with inserting the missing note somewhere between. Reading it back was also a problem. And it's an ugly style. It always lookes like a 3-year-old baby writing task. Today I use a free score editor Capriccio (which is avaible under www.cdefgabc.com). It may be installed and used offline, but can also be used online on every PC without installation. It places all the tacts really nicely. It prints great, plays my compositions, exports to pdf. Is there anything I need more?

I have to say this will be an open question for me forever . I've seen so many scores that I had to improvise, because I simply wasn't able to read them.

Last week I got about 30 pages of music. All pages were handwritten. Many crosses, notes that couldn't be really read. I sat down, looked at it and there only one short question  kept revolving around in my brain: "WHY???"