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NeXT vs Sun

hoffman60613 · 115.7K views · 2011-11-23 · 17:48

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Overview

A 1991 NeXT promotional video that stages a head-to-head programming contest between a NeXT computer and a Sun workstation. It shows NeXT's interface builder and object-oriented tooling producing an application far faster than traditional UNIX development.

On Hacker News

HN uses it as the canonical example of rapid application development and object-oriented tooling productivity, though many note it is biased marketing.

Recommended by 3 HN people across 3 months · HN mentions 2015–2026

Topics

Software architecture & designGUI, HCI & interface historyTesting, debugging & developer tools
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nextstepsun microsystemsobject-oriented programmingsteve jobsdeveloper tools

What people said

lproven · 2024-10 · Recommendation

So very much this. I think programming languages are also long overdue for some controlled trials. They can't be blinded: any experimental subject bright enough to learn to program is probably going to know what language they are programming in. But trials comparing the effectiveness of different languages. How long they take to attain a specified level of proficiency, how long to learn enough to produce working code, and importantly, readability: for instance, how long it takes to find intentionally-planted bugs in existing, unfamiliar code. NeXT did this, way back in the 1980s, and Sun lost badly: [VIDEO] There is a writeup of some of it here: [LINK] But speaking as a non-video-liker, this 17min one is worth it.

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rileyphone · 2022-11 · Recommendation

There's a fun bit of marketing [0] NeXT did when AppKit was the new thing, comparing building a reasonably non-trivial application with it to a Sun workstation using C. Obviously biased, but still an interesting look into the development environment that among other things brought us the Web and DOOM. 0. [VIDEO]

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indymike · 2017-03 · Recommendation

Started programming in 1982. Object oriented programming was a huge advance - especially in developer productivity. A side effect was the dramatic improvement in developer tools: gui builders, IDEs, etc all improved dramatically. Probably the watershed moment for OO was this NeXT video that showed the difference: [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by hoffman60613, played through YouTube.

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