Monday February 06, 2006

I haven't read "Beyond Java" yet. When I hit the book store the other day they didn't have it :( Don't ask why, but I don't buy books online. For me, books are usually an "I want it now" affair with me. When it comes to purchasing books, I'm ssssooo pCommerce (physical commerce). Back on topic, I think there is great value in scripting languages. Picking up some JVM-based dynamic scripting language (where I can leverage my rt.jar knowledge) is inching up on my to do list. I'm trying to figure out where to start. Jython? Groovy? jRuby? No shortage of choice, that's for sure.

The discussion that "Beyond Java" invokes is a good one. However, some of the ASCII verbage and opinion I read seems to be based on something besides fact. The verbage I am talking about is the questioning of the survival of Java the language, or to some, all things Java (JVM / libraries / language). Not sure what facts those discussions are based on. The discussion I read tend to quote anecdotal evidence. Listening to the Java Posse while doing yardwork yesterday, the podcasting team put forth real data showing the growth of Java. An Evans Data survey shows Java usage is up 50% in the last 6 months in small to medium businesses. 1 in 4 developers at small firms use JEE, with a projection of another 13% within two years. 60% of developers in small to medium businesses use JSE or JEE at least some of the time, with 20% saying they use it a majority of the time, with a growth projection to 70% and 35% respectively within 2 years.

The tendency of some developers I know to "cat 'discussion thread' | parse topic | wc | conclusion" is unfortunate. Internet forums can be a poor indicator of what is really happening. There is the vocal minority and then there is the silent majority. The two are not always in agreement.