Hi Tony, am what you could call a junior programmer (less than 3 years expérience un j2ee) I'll just respond to a few java related point, as i don't know .NET - You say primitives are not nullable. If you need a nullable integer, use java.lang.Integer. - Operators overloading is something i consider dangerous, and i thanks sun for not implementing those - We are developping here a webapp which need to be deployed at several 'clients', whose server range from linux to windows to HP-UX, so cross-platform is an important constraint :) This explains the use of java. - The 'only one language' of JAVA compared to .NET make it easier for company to manage the knowledge of developpers, which can compensate the knowledge spreading across the various libraries
Those too are only my opinions, and as you express yours, i express mine :) BTW, i don't think there is a conflict .NET <-> J2EE Simply use the right tool for the right purpose. Le Mercredi 25 Janvier 2006 04:27, Tony LaPaso a écrit : > Hi all, > > I should mention that this post is a bit off topic. If you hate > Microsoft then stop reading now and I'm sorry for wasting your time. I > don't own stock in Microsoft, I don't know Bill Gates and nobody paid > me or asked me to say the things I wrote below. These are just my > opinions based on my experiences with many years in Java and two months > of learning .NET/C# 2.0. > > I've been programming in Java/J2EE for the past 8+ years, most of this > time as a contractor for several companies on many J2EE projects. I > even have a small (and now hopelessly out of date) Java web site that > I've maintained for the past 5+ years at www.absolutejava.com, which > will be removed in early May. > > Until about 8 weeks ago, I never even considered looking at anything > Microsoft offered. Recently though, on a whim, I browsed over to the > Microsoft site because I'd heard about their new release of Visual > Studio. I'd been a Windows programmer back in the mid '90s and was > curious to see how Visual Studio (it was Visual C++ back then) had > evolved (or not). > > I didn't download Visual Studio but instead I downloaded a couple free > tutorial videos for Microsoft's "Web Developer Express" product (which > is a free product, BTW). "Web Developer Express" has a subset of the > features in the full "Visual Studio" product and is used for building > server-side (or client side, for that matter) web apps. I couldn't > believe what I saw. "Web Developer Express" blows away anything we have > in the Java world for developing server-side web apps. It was kind of a > jaw-dropping experience to see what the tool can do and what ASP.NET > offers compared to servlets/JSP/Struts/JSTL/JSF. > > I don't want to turn this post into a "feature by feature" comparison > of ASP.NET and equivalent Java technologies. My impression, though, > from watching these tutorial videos is that we in the J2EE world are > living like knuckle-dragging Barbarians, scratching out an existence > clothed in bear skins, using stone knives and sticks as our tools of > choice. Those using .NET are living in fine brick homes with hardwood > floors, fireplaces and regular visits from PeaPod. > > After looking at ASP.NET I became interested in looking at the C# > language, proper. My impressions of C# vs. Java mirrored those of > ASP.NET vs. servlets/JSP/etc. Java has kludgey support for properties > and events (they're just regular methods with parameters) while C# has > the constructs (delegates & events) built directly into the core > language. C# also supports co-routines, something we have to simulate > in Java as well as "out parameters" (which allow a method to change the > caller's parameter's value) and operator overloading. C# also has > "nullable" types. Imagine Java's primitive types being able to hold > null values. This is highly useful when working with databases. > > Finally, .NET provides an integrated and more comprehensive approach to > setting security permissions and versioning of what are called, > "assemblies". Assemblies are very roughly equivalent to JARs. This > allows you to compile your code against a specific version of an > assembly and have that version information maintained in the resulting > executable. It also allows several versions of the same assemblies > (again, think "JARs") to co-exist peacefully in a global, system-wide > cache of assemblies. Sun should have given us something like this five > years ago. > > Another advantage I saw with .NET is that it is more "cross language" > friendly than Java. First of all, .NET, like Java, executes a "platform > neutral" representation of a program (analogous to Java bytecode). > Unlike Java, .NET programs can be written in many languages (C#, C++, > Perl, Python, J#, VB, and many others). Microsoft's J# is, from what > I've seen, a clone of Java (although I'm sure there are differences). > The point I want to make is that once compiled, .NET programs can call > each other seamlessly, regardless of the language the programs were > originally written in. So for example, a J# class can extend a C# class > which can extend a VB class. You're not tied to one language like you > are in Java. > > I know that, theoretically, any language could potentially be compiled > into Java bytecode (I guess Groovy is an example). Practically, > however, this is not commonly done. > > Suffice it say, I am switching after 8+ years in Java. It was a tough > decision at first because I have so much time and effort invested in > Java. When I eventually get on a .NET project I will be starting over > as a junior person making a junior person's salary. That won't be > pleasant. I have close to $1,000 in Java books that I've accumulated > over the years that are now for sale on Amazon. Ultimately though, I > felt I'd be able to spend more time actually writing code on a single > consistent, and what seems to be superior platform (.NET) rather than > gluing together a half dozen open source tools with XML files, which it > seems J2EE requires far too much of. > > To me, J2EE has become too fat and burdensome in the past few years, > especially with the proliferation of so many competing open source > projects. I think too much choice can be as bad as not enough choice. > > BTW, I realize .NET is not perceived as being as "cross platform" as > Java (although that's changing as the Mono Project > [http://www.mono-project.com] gains traction). Initially, this lack of > "cross platformability" gave me cause for hesitation. But then I > started thinking of all the J2EE projects I'd been on in the past 8 > years. How many of them do you think ever used the same Java code base > on multiple platforms? How many of them ever ported Java code from one > platform to another? Zero. Not a single one, at least not to my > knowledge. > > In my experience companies do not port their back-end enterprise > systems between platforms. They usually know what platform they will > run on long before the first line of code is ever written and they > stick with that platform. So, "cross platformability" was, in my > experience anyway, more applicable to systems with significant UIs and > Java has not done well in this area. > > I think "Cross Platformability" sounded great when Java was young > because we all had these visions of cool Java programs running on all > these different platforms and within web browsers. It was a very > seductive thought. But this vision depended on Java being a success on > the desktop. So much for that. > > Again, this all is just my opinion and somewhat preliminary as I've > only been learning C#/.NET for about 2 months now. Many of you will > undoubtedly vehemently disagree with what I've said and probably > suspect I have ulterior motives for making this post. I posted this > because I just wanted to share what, for me, was something of a happy > and exciting revelation. At this point I feel a bit like I did when I > switched from C++ to Java back in 1997. I realize there is always > strong and emotional anti-Microsoft sentiment in these groups for some > reason. All I can say is that when I looked at what each platform > offered, for me, .NET and C# were the winners, based on their technical > merits. I never thought I would leave Java, especially for C#, but so > far I'm not regretting it. > > Good luck to you all. > > -- > Tony LaPaso > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > -- David Delbecq Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium - Pingouins dans les champs, hiver méchant --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
