Departure Of The Java Hyper-Enthusiasts?

TomH writes "Bruce Eckel has an article at Aritma, where he posits that 'The Java hyper-enthusiasts have left the building, leaving a significant contingent of Java programmers behind, blinking in the bright lights without the constant drumbeat of boosterism.' Has the previous hype of Java and J2EE moved on to Ruby (on Rails) and Python?"

Comments

maybe to ruby, not python

[Surt]

No one I've met doing serious development is building on python, it's just too error prone. Ruby (and on rails) are definitely gaining serious adherents though. Particularly with ruby likely to become a first class JVM language, Ruby's future looks pretty bright. Ruby may well replace java as the syntax of choice for developing big web apps.

Author's Thoughts on O'Reilly

[TubeSteak]

The book is roughly edited; you'll find yourself thinking "haven't I read this paragraph before?" in any number of places, but that's a disappointing experience I've had with several O'Reilly books of late. In many places he plays fast and loose, and almost at the end of the book he declares that he doesn't have time to learn these other languages in any depth -- although he has no trouble condemning the same languages in his rush to Ruby. Such a statement should be in the first paragraph of the book: "I've decided that I love Ruby, so I will condemn other languages without fully understanding them" (in one sentence repeated in a number of places in the book, for example, he declares that C# is no more than a clone of Java).

Not sure if it's worth reading the rest of his book review / article

In short, no

[Serveert]

I think that Real People are getting Real Work done while the flashy enthusiasts no longer have to toot the horn of Java.

Java is faster than Ruby and as bloated as it may be, there are a ton of J2EE applications you can purchase and modify to suit your own needs. Not to mention the plethora of development environments - hibernate, JMS, JNDI, torque etc etc. ROR is nice but let's get real - ruby isn't as fast and the few applications around ruby aren't nearly as mature as Java. Having said that I'm hoping Java will get opened up by Sun but I'm not holding my breath.

No, the fashion industry has fads well organized

[Animats]

If course it has. IT actually is not too far removed from the fashion industry.

You thought fashion fads just happened? It's much more organized than that. The "in" colors for US fashion are chosen 22 months in advance, by the little-known Color Association of the United States. Color forecasts are issued to subscribers, and the textile mills, dye manufacturers, and clothiers start to gear up for the coming seasons. Because there are some long manufacturing lead times to produce fabrics in huge volume, the style decisions have to be organized.

"Pinks and fuchsia were everywhere in spring 2003; CAUS members knew this in spring of 2001."

Here's the activewear color plan for 2006-2007:

• Colors are anchored by light and dark neutrals in addition to the ever important white.
• Red will return as a leading bright, in coral and raspberry shades. - In color combinations, tonalities of one shade look new and dynamic.
• Cool colors like Apple Green, Indigo and teals are soothing, and especially attractive when matched with brown-influenced neutrals like Wheat and Terracotta. Finishes such as metallicizing add dimension and interest to color and fabrications.

Color changes in fashion do not happen by accident.

Re:Hype?

[IAmTheDave]

I have only one wish, and that's that the Java hyper-enthusiasts would depart from my university's staff. The amount of Java classes here is ridiculous.

Yeah, my CS classes started out with Java. I don't want to start a huge debate, but I think it's a decent learning language, especially good for 100 level courses. Of course, you should move on past that... We ended up having a good mix of five or six languages while dabling in a couple others, but starting with Java was a good way to introduce the concepts of OOPLs without the added difficulty C++ brings with it.