Where Is Java Going to Go From Here?
Ever since I attended the NFJS Gateway Symposium almost 2 years ago, I’ve been hearing the same theme over and over:
Java is the new COBOL.
Everywhere you go, you can’t seem to avoid hearing this. An ex-coworker commented when I ran into him at Agile 2007: “I’m surprised you guys aren’t using JRuby.” Two sessions I attended there also had speakers throwing in a little rant that Java is a dinosaur that is going way. With all the new languages that can run on top of the JVM now, there has been a lot of fuss on what is going to become the next language of choice for Java developers.
DZone’s Steven Devijver is placing his bets on Groovy. This was brought up quite a bit at NFJS last year as well. It’s hard to argue against it… with JRuby, java developers have to learn a completely new language with different characteristics than what their used to, whereas Groovy combines the best of both worlds with all of the nice characteristics Ruby has (and more) as well as a familiar syntax… java code is completely valid in Groovy.
Scala has also captured my interest as of late and I really think that 2008 will be the year that it breaks into the mainstream (much like a year or two ago was for Groovy). Only time would tell I suppose… I like both languages so it is difficult to place any bets on which is going to become the new replacement for Java.
What do you think?
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February 13th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
i cant believe people are still taking about those languages, scala is the newest and coolest, groovy …. ruby is for php programmers.
February 14th, 2008 at 12:33 am
Funny, I was just saying last week thatJava is not the new COBOL. In any case, Scala is awesome. Not only does it sport a full complement of modern OO and FP features, the features all go together cohesively. In the end, it is this cohesion that will give Scala staying power.
February 14th, 2008 at 11:49 am
I regularly see myself as a cobbler of web applications writing nearly the same login, security, form validation and database code a hundred times over. Sure, it varies for the application, but the cookbook nature of it all leaves me with the thought that we are just the new generation of COBOL developers. They spent their days churning out one report after another, not very different from us Java guys. Of course, you could argue that it is true of any web app developer regardless of language.