Beyond Java (Bruce Tate)

Good thing about having to change, is thinking about your career, where you want to be, where you want to go to. I am a c++ man. By stagnation. I have done a bit of java, but not enough to my liking to call me proficient. The language shouldn't pose a problem, but the frameworks do.

So i picked up this book. The Java environment is getting bigger and bigger, and coming from the outside, the step towards it is also harder and harder. Not because of the language or the complexity of the frameworks, but just the sheer size and the amount of available solutions, options.

I wanted to look "Beyond Java", aim for the next wave directly. The author focuses on web-programming. He feels this is the way to go. I agree, for all client-based software. GUI would best be written for the web, so you don't have deployment problems (or less), scaleability from the start (or easier, just scale your webserver --or it should be that easy).

So this book focuses on two solutions : Ruby On Rails and Continuation servers. Both seem to make web programming easier. I have used PHP and MySQL, which is easy but dirty. Ruby on Rails seems much neater, a cool environment, the scaffolding is a good start. RoR as an environment, for pure webprogramming, beats java hands down. Continuation servers are really cool, because they allow the programmer to think as for a normal UI-application. Much easier. But the downside is that for now it is only available on SmallTalk. Ruby by the way, as a language, looks really interesting. It is great. Reminds me a lot of SmallTalk too.

But ... how cool RoR looks, it is limited. Java is a total enterprise framework, which is way bigger then just programming for the web. Web-programming in Java could be improved (port Rails ?), but Java offers more. Integration with legacy is possible. Java is also the platform where all the latest developments come together naturally. Refactoring, design patterns, agile development, was all nicely integrated. This makes java, in my book, a winner. There is as we speak no real contender.

What about .NET ? Well, i have seen it at work. It is super-cool. The development environment is awesome. C# has some really cool stuff, and does do things better than java. Building forms is dead-easy, and they look good. I have heard building websites is as easy (or easier). For the websites i am not as convinced because the strength of webbrowsers has to be the platform-independency. So you don't include components which can only be used or shown on a Windows PC, or worse, on a Windows PC with the entire .NET environment present. But on that regard : i am not an expert, so i am not sure what .NET is capable of.

For me it just doesn't feel as right, working with .NET which totally ties you to a single supplier. Porting applications to linux becomes entirely impossible. Should you want to ? Well, for instance, our application servers ran 30% quicker on less performant Intel machines. Go figure.

For me there seem to be two options. Learn Ruby, and fast. Learn java, even better. Ruby for fun, java for real work ;-)


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