Can Java Be Saved? Part Three
Part Three—What’s driving me?
Part of what is driving my quest is how frustrated I have become with trying to create java web applications. My job that takes up most of my time is being a teacher. That doesn’t leave me much time to create private side projects. Whenever I have a great idea for a project that will enhance my teaching experience or just sounds fun I just dread the idea of doing it in java. For years I have wondered if I was the only one. Then my colleague who is the .NET expert in my department mentioned that he was doing a side project in PHP. I thought it was very telling that neither of us wanted to code for fun in our area of expertise. That made me start the search for more coding joy.
It was the summer of 2005 and I was at the big JavaOne conference in San Francisco. It was my annual trip to see what was new in the world of java. I was noticing that the conference seemed even more corporate than normal. I also noticed that people were talking in the halls and rest areas about something called Ruby on Rails. At first I was a bit curious. After several days of hearing about this I decided that if developers at a java conference were talking about an alternative technology then I had better check it out.
After I got home I started learning Rails. The light came on and I now believe that Ruby on Rails the best way to code web applications by a very large margin. The speed and joy involved in the process has changed my career. I even now have a course on Rails that is completely full.
But, that is not what this series is about. I still have to teach java and I will probably still get consulting calls for it. What is driving me to write this series is the result of my learning that there can be joy in coding web apps! This is very cool! My quest is to see if I can create a java-based web application environment that feels better. I don’t have to duplicate Rails in java like some are trying. I only need to feel productive and feel a sense of joy when coding. I want to feel light on my feet again instead of feeling like I’m wearing lead shoes.
Wish me well, I’m going in.
Eric,
I’m really interested in these ‘Can Java Be Saved’ posts. Despite my short amount of time with java I’ve become frustrated with its overuse of complexity.
I think a wise man once said:
I hate Rails! It’s ruining my day job!
Eric …im also interested in these posts,I have been working on java for a long time and i used to argue in support of java with everyone :) ...
recently my friends asked me if i could develop something like wordpress very quickly as they could try that in RoR ,tried searching for open source cms and what ever i download has a size above 30mb :)...eager to know where your quest leads to… good day
Vinod
Eric,
I agree with you and Brett 100%. I’m learning Web programming in Java and I found that Java is too complicated for most of the applications!
I managed to learn RoR a little bit by myself and I found it to be very (I mean VERY) simple! I actually enjoy learning RoR more than I do learning Java.
In fact, I’m going to start complementing my Java development with RoR (shameless plug: I blogged about using RoR to maintain my database schema).
I’m interested in reading further Can Java Be Saved posts.
Handy