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Yakov Fain's Java Blog: What's the Next Big Thing in Java?

During my rather long software development career I made several switches from one programming language to another
By Yakov Fain
Article Rating:
January 26, 2006 11:00 AM EST
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 17,467
What's the Next Big Thing in Java?

During my rather long software development career I made several switches from one programming language to another. The last one was back in 1998 when I switched from PowerBuilder to Java. Since Java is much more than just a language, it kept me busy all these years. I was learning newly born technologies like Servlets, JSP, EJB, JMS…I’m always closely watching what’s happening in the Java community, buying (and reading!) books on new frameworks (Spring, Hibernate…), programming and design principles (OOD, AOP, SOA, ESB…), buzzword techniques (AJAX), open source tools, etc.

Unfortunately, I have to admit that I do not see any new “revolutionary thingy” that would get me really exited. I’m not leaving Java because there is nowhere to go. All these threats that some particular language will kill Java can not be taken seriously. It’s like saying that Italian language will kill English. Italian songs sound great, and let them be heard forever, but the role of the English is much bigger than just singing.

At first, AJAX sounded like an interesting technology. But after giving it a closer look, I put it aside. People are filled with joy seeing how the content of a web page changes after each key stroke. But the price is way too high for achieving this functionality (at least today). First, I do not want to become a JavaScript expert, second, if you’ll show your users one Web page with this new functionality, they’ll force you to change all of them (try to explain them that this is not as easy as they think!) and this will become you primary job, your server performance will suffer (the number of the server request will grow tremendously), and on, and on, and on. What’s good for Google is not always good for business-oriented software.

IMHO, Java need a major breakthrough in the front end (GUI) area, NetBeans (Matisse) is a step in the right direction, but they still have a long way to go. Adobe has some good front end tools (Flash and Flex from Macromedia), and using them with Java in the back might be a good idea.

AOP should have a good future.

Anything else? What’s your take on this? Do you see the next big thing in Java?

Published January 26, 2006 – Reads 17,467
Copyright © 2006 SYS-CON Media, Inc. — All Rights Reserved.
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Yakov Fain is a Managing Director of Farata Systems, consulting, training and product company. He has authored several Java books, dozens of technical articles. SYS-CON Books released his latest co-authored book , Rich Internet Applications with Adobe Flex and Java: Secrets of the Masters in Spring 2007. Sun Microsystems has nominated and awarded Yakov with the title Java Champion. He leads the Princeton Java Users Group. He is an Adobe Certified Flex Instructor. Yakov co-athored the O'Reilly book "Enterprise Application Development with Flex". He twits at twitter.com/yfain.

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Most Recent Comments
Alex Kravets 03/02/06 06:20:30 PM EST

SEGURON,

Another words use Eclipse :)
No, really if I see another article about AJAX, I am going to throw my computer from the roof. I mean there are a number of superior alternatives to AJAX that people pay less atteniton to: Swing, SWT/JFace, Eclipse thru Java Web Start...
SEGURON 01/27/06 08:27:47 AM EST

This is how .Net should have been understood when i talk as "competitor". This (should) provoque Sun when seeing ease of dev and rich GUI from latest .Net products.

That how would be understood my sayings.

Sun should (would) react, Swing is not over, Jide is a good software company with it seems good product. Binding should be on the way.

Waiting for reactions...
Yakov Fain 01/27/06 06:39:50 AM EST

Java and .Net are two main players in town. They will keep compeeting (which is good)and push each other forward.

Do not treat .Net as an enemy of Java. Learn from it and use it. For example, we are planning to run a non-profit joined code camp with .Net crowd (see http://yakovfain.javadevelopersjournal.com/when_net_loves_java.htm )
SEGURON 01/27/06 05:51:08 AM EST

This is deeply what i think, but i see .Net 2.0 as a big competitor.

I trully do not understand Sun (no) move.

Where i differ from you, is that they must build a productive dev env, on Netbeans (Matisse is a good start for Screen design)
+ buying Jide Software (very good swing dev) that will be a competitor to WinForms
+ including JGoodies + others binding
+ making an important effort in integrating binding with the IDE and Jide components

Thus finally making things very easy to use (examples and tutorials like current Netbean's ones).

A dev env will be choosen if it adrresses both areas (Rich Client and Web).

.Net does it nicely. Java must go to the same level.
JDJ News Desk 01/26/06 12:12:39 PM EST

During my rather long software development career I made several switches from one programming language to another. The last one was back in 1998 when I switched from PowerBuilder to Java. Since Java is much more than just a language, it kept me busy all these years. I was learning newly born technologies like Servlets, JSP, EJB, JMS...