Sun Plans VB-Like Tools For Java

CokoBWare writes "Sun apparently is trying to create a more VB-like experience for developer. This article from E-Week explains Sun's strategy in providing more VBesque tools for the Java developer. Can anyone say "Good luck Sun, and all the best"?"

Comments

Re:Umm... why?

[CokoBWare]

Well as a VB developer (don't hit me please), I find that Java seems just a bit unapproachable. Now that I moved to VB.NET, I don't feel as dumb as I used to when it comes to OOP, so I think I could actually get into Java with 4 on the floor. Having a set of tools that make this transition easier for us VB developers would be beneficial for the Java market.

However, I think that most IT departments won't care a hill of beans to migrate all their existing code to another codebase because the tools are good. I think this will bring newer projects online with Java, and create a bit more competition in the desktop application market. Look back to what C was with Windows 3.1... Visual Basic made Windows programming easy. If this is any indication, then the new Java tools will give developers a leg-up on cross-platform development with Java.

It's about time

[GOD_ALMIGHTY]

If this follows Sun's other attempts at engineering in the Java API's it should work pretty well.

While EJBs and other API's have been a great way to create reusable components with lots of enterprise class features, the idea of writing 5 different classes where a lot of the information is repetitive then editing a global XML file or two was rediculous. Hopefully they'll take the XDoclet approach and include the meta information used to generate this stuff from a single file.

It's really the same thing with 'JavaBeans', which I remember playing with in '97, the concept was really great but the extra maintenance on BeanInfo classes and such was a complete PITA.

It seems to me that Sun has created a lot of flexibility and interoperability in their development kits, but they have never addressed the management of the complexity that it creates. The best thing the commercial world came up with was systems that were quick hacks tied to their development tools (WebSphere anyone?). The Open Source world has offered stuff like XDoclet, which has totally simplified these tasks, but it seems no one at Sun has noticed.

I think Sun thought the commercial community would come up with the same level of engineering that they had in formulating their API's, now I think they realize that that market is still open and not only is it important to compete with the well-regarded tools MS puts out, but theres $$ to be made.

Java should totally stomp .Net and C# for developing business systems, but the tools need to be on the same level. I guess you could say 'It's the tools, stupid!'. Maybe Sun will realize that decent development tools are the crack that MS has used to hook tons of developers and if equivilent tools were available to new Java developers (and experienced ones who hate tedium), the rate of adoption would pick up.

Re:Umm... why?

[a hollow voice]

Having worked in a VB shop during college while studying Java in class, I'd say one of the big reasons people use VB in a business environment is because of the relatively quick turnaround for GUI apps. There are lots of apps that get developed in certain business environments solely as simple data front-ends because the people working with the data are non-technical and need a nice interface, but the app is only expected to be needed for a few months, or maybe even weeks, so a full development cycle in a more robust language really isn't practical. What you toss together in VB may not be as efficient or elegant as it could have been, but it generally does what it needs to do and gets done fast.

Sure Java can do a nice flexible cross-platform (in theory, anyway) GUI front end, but even setting aside the performance issues of Swing, it generally takes a good bit more time to set up than a comparable VB interface.

Uh oh...

[Phantasmo]

We are working on tools that the historic visual developers will find very attractive. They will be all written in Java.

I love Java on a fast machine, but most of the time I'm using a Pentium 2 with a 233MHz processor. I can't run jEdit, JBuilder or NetBeans on here because they're too damn slow!

They should write it in C/C++. Most Java applications that I've used run just fine on this "bitty box", but IDEs and text-editors slow to a crawl.

I guess what _I_ really need is JCreator to be ported to GNU/Linux.