It's official now: Ceylon is close to it's first beta and the team have launched the site at Devoxx. Of course we heard about Ceylon earlier this year but the curtain really came up last week. For a project that really only took off just after I took over from Sacha, Gavin and the team have done a great job. And in great JBoss tradition, I'm not just talking about the specification or implementation, but also about the thriving community that's built up in only a few short months! It's is yet another project that I wish I had more time to commit to it, so have only been able to help on the specification intermittently and only then much earlier this year, but as they say, every little helps (no pun intended!)

I'm really excited by Ceylon and what it might mean for other things we're doing in Cloud and JBossEverywhere. So expect to hear more about this effort in the coming months, because just like Java, it's going to continue to evolve. And can we please stop these "my language is better than your language" arguments? There's room in this evolving polyglot world for a few more, even if just to allow people to stretch their mental legs and see what works and what doesn't. Everyone is entitled to their opinions and reasoned arguments are always allowed; but flamewars, especially if they're subjectively based, don't help anyone.

Onward!