A website was recently put up for Red Hat’s as-yet-unreleased programming language, Ceylon.

I was reading the part where it says: ‘Ceylon is deeply influenced by Java. You see, we’re fans of Java…’ By some uncanny coincidence, a troupe of clowns passed by at that very moment to the accompaniment of Entry of the Gladiators (played out of tune, as it should be). It’s true!I’m not making this up.

Anyway I scanned the rest of the page for any redeeming features (the word ‘concurrency’ would have done it for me). But no. However, what did catch my eye was this fine print in the footer: ‘Ceylon is a trademark of Red Hat Inc.’

Now I know how the Javanese must feel.