Keeping Current
I can’t remember another time in history when the direction of future programming tools and platforms was more volatile and unsure. The options are rich and powerful. The question is which ones will continue to be used in future platforms.
The timing is not going to be short, like 2 or three years. And even when times begin to change there will be overlap in existing systems. It won’t make sense to change quickly.
The possibilities are wide open today with the capability of distributed systems and Cloud based architectures. These capabilities taken alongside the expanding power of portable devices make it difficult to predict how software will be written in the future, or where it will operate. High network speeds enhance the options even further.
As a result, I would say that the definition of Keeping Current needs to continue to evolve into more than learning new languages and/or frameworks. It is becoming increasingly more important to learn principles, processes and patterns of writing and managing software. Understanding why something works the way it does will be more important than syntax, because the syntax or even the operating system is going to change.
Following are some thoughts from our readers regarding the question “Is Java Relevant?”
Don:
As a MS dev, on the stack for 15 years now, I wonder if the article title should be more of Does Client Side Development Matter Anymore?
In the corporate world, it is intranet and in the consumer world it has become internet via tablets and phones. With the demise of PC sales, and the telling uptick of tablets and soon to be phablets, the question arises as to who really writes client side(PC, MACOS, LINUX) apps anymore? I don’t classify app store apps for phones and tablets as client side in the traditional sense.
The debate in my mind is whether JAVA/.NET will be relevant in the next 7 years due to numerous factors –
- MS stepping away from enhancing .NET and the path to developer destruction brought about by TIFKAM
- the rise of JavaScript on the server (node.js)
- the stability of PHP and the open source app community driving custom app development into the abyss while the adaptation of existing open source apps, depending on the license, into internal business apps is on the rise (don’t reinvent the wheel
- Oracle slowing the pace of JAVA so much so it basically kills it
- JSP development projects have been lackluster and replaced in great part by PHP and Ruby(in some instances)
- Web standards finally being implemented in browsers and the inability of MS to hold back the flood of new functionality baked into the browser
- The browser as the OS/platform
- The dearth of improvements in ASP.NET
- MariaDB as an example of how Oracle’s ownership of a technology spawns new open source to replace existing not all together open source – perhaps your article hit it on the nose and JAVA could be forked and improved outside of Oracle. That fragmentation, however, may or may not be met with happiness among existing java developers.
Just some musings that may or may not be shaping where things are headed for both languages, although JAVA seems to be taking the biggest hit for now. The next CEO of Microsoft will help foretell the future of development on that stack and whether a return to sanity will take place or whether the current blight Windows 8 has bestowed on Windows development continues.
One thing is pretty certain – in seven years the landscape will be different and developers need to keep their skills sharp and continue to add new tools to their toolbox to stay relevant.
Mike:
It seems a little silly to ask a group of predominantly MS-focused developers about the viability of Java, doesn’t it? You don’t ask a baseball team what kind of football helmet is best, or ask the soccer club who makes the best baseball bats. (But, if it got you more page views, I guess you would.)
Your question about "resurrecting Java" implies that it is dead. It most demonstrably isn’t. Java is vibrant and viable. The .NET languages are verdant, too. Some people use one, some people sue the other, some people use both. I don’t think there are any project owners who think one platform is so bad that they’re switching to the other — at least, not for established projects.
Since Oracle is a far more services-oriented company, you might argue that support for Java is better.
Otherwise, it seems like the platforms are quite equal.
If you believe that your goal is to support and describe enterprise technology, then Java is relevant to you.
As a follow up to Mike’s comment let me provide you a survey link from SSWUG. We are not simply a Dot Net SQL Server site even though the majority of my content tends to be MS based. If you’d like to have input regarding the kind of content you’d like to find on our site you can provide your input very quickly on this short, simple, fast survey found at this SSWUG Survey.
Cheers,
Ben
$$SWYNK$$
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