I needed a refresher on JEE and this is a pretty good book. I've done JEE web development in a previous job, many years ago. At the time on that job - because it was highly abstracted by an in-house framework - I was largely doing cargo cult programming. Now, working through this book, JEE web stuff makes total sense. Trying out a new language and framework really does make you do a kind of "programmer's double take" and learn more about the ones you already know.
Why did I go back to Java? - I'm starting to approach the middle of the year now. I told myself that I would at least be looking into doing some work in the second half of the year (contracting or possibly freelancing). Java is really the only language/platform I can claim to know very well and have many years of commercial experience with. And let's face it - there are a lot of Java jobs out there.
One thing I've learned with the Ruby/Rails tryout is - Java web stuff doesn't suck anywhere as much as the Ruby crowd says. Sure, there is a fair bit of boilerplate in JEE, but it's not nearly as bad or unmanageable as it's made out to be. Also, I have to say that convention-over-configuration didn't really impress me all that much. I can see the benefits, but being a bit of a control freak, I actually like the idea of everything being spelled out in code (or config files) somewhere. When I get stuck, I like doing a Find In Files across the project source and seeing how everything connects - so this is mostly a matter of style and taste. It's disconcerting when I can't do that - because the framework has made assumptions for me which hide the flow from FIF.
No comments:
Post a Comment