Filed under: Java
I mean a structured one here.
You can of course build a site simply by putting a bunch of JSPs together into a Tomcat. But the result is nothing more than a collection of interlinked dynamic pages, not an application. A structured application should be with easy to read, easy to maintain, extend and refactor in a logical manner.
I didn’t quite realize this question until recently I am assigned a few new developers and decided to layout a web application skeleton by picking some bullet-proven frameworks and technologies on the market, in Java camp of course, to let our developers to work productively without getting stuck with traps our development team have muddled through in the past. This is my finalized shopping list.
The stack is huge. Scary enough to hold people back from writing their first web application in Java, after completing their hello-world course. Not to mention the initial lengthy and error-prone setup procedure one need to go through to get all stuff running together … Eclipse WTP, Maven, Spring, Acegi, Hibernate, Tomcat, Blahlala….
15 items on my menu. Holy.
I love Java. It is still my favorite programming language today. It let me build fantastic application to serve people around the world without caring much about the m$ stuffs & hacks. But when it comes to the web, the slope one need to climb so huge that if you are new to these you will be exhausted before making any fun from building your first application. I could be proud of the number of skills I mastered. Yet I would enjoy more if my application can do more for the users, improves in a rapid rate to catch up user’s need and make them happier. Flying is fun. Crafting the aircraft to fly is definitely another issue.
If today some one turn to me and ask “I want to write a web application. Where should I start?”. Try to Ruby on Rails my friend. Get a text editor and Instant Rails, you are off to go.
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Hi,
It’s interesting that you said about building a structured web application. Yes I agree that nowadays some people avoid integrating alot of framework for the sake of simplicity and preventing the high amount of learning curve because the amount of frameworks that is used in the web apps. I agree with you though the stack is scary but as time goes by it’s worth the pain especially during maintanance phase or when there is a change request from client. The latter will only make your codes tangled when there’s a change request and very hard to maintain.
Comment by Joshua Jackson August 24, 2007 @ 9:15 amDomesticated says : I absolutely agree with this !
Comment by domesticated May 30, 2008 @ 3:32 am