I prefer writing server side web apps - that is why I like Java

I am an old Lisper, and recently I have been enjoying Squeak Smalltalk too much. So why do I enjoy (and use) Java so much?

I used to write GUI apps (commercial products on Xerox 1108 Lisp Machine, Mac, Windows), but now, I most enjoy writing web apps for a variety of reasons: I like maintaining application data in one place. I like exposing application classes with both web interfaces (i.e., JSPs, struts, etc) and SOAP/XLM-RPC/REST interfaces. I like the ability to do live updates. I have dreams of selling software services for NLP and AI: writing complex software that 'lives' on a server under my complete control, yet usable by many people.

Sure, with Java you give up late binding, continuations, etc. However, the awesome and free tools like Tomcat, Prevayler, SOAP/XML-RPC/REST libraries, incredible development tools like IntelliJ, etc. make using Java a slam dunk for some types of projects.

There are alternatives. I once signed up for a year as a VisualWorks Smalltalk VAR - great web services support and good development and deployment tools. Problem was, my customers wanted systems built in Java - that was what the demand was for. The free Squeak Smalltalk system is a rougher, but very good alternative to VisualWorks: good SOAP support, decent tools for doing web apps, lot of fun...

Popularity in a programming language can be a good thing, and Java definitely has popularity.

I have always respected people's choice in programming languages and tools. Unlike a lot of people on Slashdot, I think that knocking someone's choice in programming language is as silly as dissing on their politics, choice of mates, or religion.

Diversity is what makes the world interesting.

That is one more reason I like developing web applications and services: you really are free to use the right tool for the job (with customer approval :-)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ruby Sinatra web apps with background work threads

In Java-land, I have often used the pattern of writing a servlet with an init() method that starts up one or more background work threads. Then while my web application is handling HTTP requests the background threads can be doing work like fetching RSS feeds for display in the web app, perform periodic maintenance like flushing old data from a database, etc. This is a simple pattern that is robust and easy to implement with a few extra lines of Java code and an extra servlet definition in a web.xml file. In Ruby-land this pattern is even simpler to implement: require 'rubygems' require 'sinatra' $sum = 0 Thread.new do # trivial example work thread while true do sleep 0.12 $sum += 1 end end get '/' do "Testing background work thread: sum is #{$sum}" end While the main thread is waiting for HTTP requests the background thread can do any other work. This works fine with Ruby 1.8.7 or any 1.9.*, but I would run this in JRuby for a lon
Read more

My Dad's work with Robert Oppenheimer and Edward Teller

Robert Oppenheimer and Edward Teller facilitated my Dad getting a professorship at UC Berkeley when I was 3 years old. Oppenheimer left Berkeley but Teller was a good friend of my father and I remember him being in our home. Three weeks ago, my wife and I were just leaving to see the new Oppenheimer movie when my Dad called. He mentioned that when I was in grade school he was invited to give a talk at Princeton. After his talk Oppenheimer talked with my Dad and invited him to have dinner at his house. My Dad said Oppenheimer was not well (I think he died of throat cancer soon afterwards) but his wife Kitty carried the conversation. My Dad, Ken Watson, passed away 10 days ago on August 18, 2023.
Read more

Time and Attention Fragmentation in Our Digital Lives

  As humans we have evolved over a few million years to be both attentive and reactive to danger, live in social communities, and spend much of our time being in the present moment gathering and eating food and socializing. The behavior of rapidly changing short attention to content on social media, too many good short form things to watch on streaming video entertainment platforms, are all rewiring our brains in an unnatural and unhealthy way. I fight back, but in really simple ways that entail little ceremony: Almost every morning I spend 30 minutes scanning Hacker News (about 10 minutes), Apple News (about 5 minutes), and the remaining time on Twitter and Mastodon finding interesting new (mostly tech) things. I make notes in a temporary Apple Note: links of things I may want to research, try, or simply read that day. I like to get this all done at once, and then not feel like I need to interrupt my activities during the day to “catch up” on what is happening in the world. In a way,
Read more