Java Questions?

[sharkey]

Hey i am going to be learning Java as a server side language in my university course and i have a few questions about it.

1. Do you need Java enabled on your server like you do php and asp.

2. Can Java do most of the same things asp/php can do.

3. Do you think it is worth learning or should i go the asp/php route

Any help is appreciated.

[ray326]

1. Yes, you have to have a "web container" aka a "servlet engine" unless you intend to use Java for CGI but nobody does.

2. With the addition of JSPs, yes, but you should not use JSPs the same way you use ASP/PHP.

3. I personally think it behooves you to do both but it's not an either/or situation. Server-side Java is radically different from server parsed HTML (ASP/PHP). If you learn the former correctly first then you can apply the patterns (MVC in particular) to ASP/PHP applications and the result will be much more maintainable than if you go into everything with the kind of all-in-one pattern that most people apply to the latter.

[sharkey]

Hey ray thanks again that has enlighted me more i think ill go php.

Cheers

[ray326]

There's definitely less setup to do on the server side for that.

[PeOfEo]

Java is most commonly used for exectable application programming. Though it has its web usage such as jsp an applets. I know java and have grown to dislike it. It is not neccessary for asp and php, but the server will most likely have vm. ASP.NET compiles code like jsp, but can be used like asp classic. Asp.net also is about as fast as it gets right now being that it is the newest technology. I have read one or two studies saying it is faster then php, but php is still pretty darned fast. There will not be a noticable difference in speed. Asp.net has its advantages over php though, asp.net is fully oo, has great language flexability, event orriented programming with event driven controls, and the classic application wide variables, just to name a few. I hope my asp.net propaganda can score some more posters in the .net forum.

[ray326]

Java is most commonly used for exectable application programming.
Actually the server-side web programming is probably most of the Java development that is done today, at least from an F500 standpoint.

[PeOfEo]

f500, oh yea, fortune 500. Well lets not forget that the mac os is a ton of java, the os its self. Linux was made from unix with c++ I thought (don't know the whole story), but java is the mac swing architecture. As far as server side goes, asp is still the business lang and out numbers the others for corperate sites. Asp.net is growing but the mass exodus is just starting.

[sharkey]

Hey i would actually quite like to learn asp.net but it isnt on my server, Right now im trying to set up a server on my comp so i can test but im getting nowhere.

Thanks for everyones words of wisdom:D

[ray326]

Well the pre-X MacOS is pretty much ASM and C and quite unique, OS X is evolved from Mach so it's mainly C/C++. Both have JVMs available but no Java in their cores. Linux (the kernel) was built from scratch Torvalds on a PC running Minix, itself built from scratch by Tannenbaum. (There's a great back-and-forth going on about that with a yahoo named Ken Brown right now. LOTS of OS history being discussed.)

[PeOfEo]

I thought the newer macs had java injected all over the place. In particular the swing architecture. I thought the newer macs had java injected all over the place. In particular the swing architecture. I saw a diagram of how the inner workings of the mac os run and I saw java spilled all over the place. I think someone should get a mop and clean up the java mess... before it gets sticky :D

[ray326]

I think someone should get a mop and clean up the java mess... before it gets sticky That only happens if you take cream and sugar.