In case you still use Java

In case you still use Java

It seems Java is getting its butt kicked on the web by LAMP (Linux/Apache/MySQL/Perl|PHP|Python) on the open source side and ASP.NET on the proprietary side.

However, there still a lot of it out there. So you might be interested to know Borland is giving away JBuilder 2005 Foundation. I can't find a press release for it but here's the download page.

JBuilder is a quality product and was the bulk of Borland's revenue for quite a while. They had a previous free "Foundation" version some two-three releases ago that was so compelling some corporations standardized on it, losing them sales. They gave up on that, trying a non-commercial license first (and how are you going to enforce that?) then dropping the Foundation thing altogether. This free version, which doesn't even require registration, says to me Java has lost the "big mo" to .NET, Mono on Linux and C#.

Posted by Prometheus 6 on December 6, 2004 - 7:33am :: Tech

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I wouldn't say it's getting it's butt kicked.
Some strong jobs are still available server side.

Posted by DarkStar on December 6, 2004 - 10:57pm.

I think of Java as Future COBOL: a lot of vital stuff is written in it, it will be a marketable skill for the forseeable future, but I don't think a lot of new systems will be deployed. Neither the Linux nor Microsoft crowds are real big on it.

Posted by Prometheus 6 on December 7, 2004 - 11:32am.

Java has a strong position in desktop applications. A rich library aids in rapidly creating GUI apps.

Unfortunately for Java, we see a long term trend to supplant desktop apps with web apps, which, as observed, are either LAMP or Microsoft proprietary.

A bit of heresy: strongly object oriented languages are academically both correct and superior, but in the real world the benefits are seldom realized. Some kinds of defects are prevented, but others arise. Code is seldom reused at the breadth suggested by academics, and planning for broad reuse is usually effort down the drain.

Further, the hard requirement to grasp the nature of class inheritance presents a barrier to both the casual and neophyte programmer which many fail to penetrate.

All of that works against Java, and in favor of languages which allow "voluntary" use of classes and inheritance.

Posted by dwshelf on December 7, 2004 - 12:35pm.

Java has a strong position in desktop applications. A rich library aids in rapidly creating GUI apps.

I don't see it. You can say the same for TCL.

A bit of heresy: strongly object oriented languages are academically both correct and superior, but in the real world the benefits are seldom realized.

This is totally the case. When I started programming I worked with a book called Abstract Data Types in Pascal. Everything I learnd from it was directly transferable to OOP. I just didn't have to pass pointers to records in my parameter lists anymore.

I'm big on encapsulation, but one, maybe two levels of inheritance from a library is my practical limit.

Posted by Prometheus 6 on December 7, 2004 - 1:31pm.

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