The Java vs. NET war is over. In this article, Ted Neward looks at how we can leverage the strengths of each together, such as using Microsoft Office to act as a "rich client" to a Java middle-tier service, or building a Windows Presentation Foundation GUI on top of Java POJOs, or even how to execute Java Enterprise/J2EE functionality from within a Windows Workflow host.
Read Java, .NET, but why together?
Ted Neward is a noted author and speaker in both the .NET and Java communities, and is perhaps the bes authority to speak on the subject. Ted introduces:
Ted concludes:
Read Java, .NET, but why together?
Ted Neward is a noted author and speaker in both the .NET and Java communities, and is perhaps the bes authority to speak on the subject. Ted introduces:
Over the years, there has been a fair amount of discussion about both of these environments, much of it highly inflammatory to one side or another, and almost none of it very useful. After all, statements like "My language is better than your language", or "My platform runs faster than your platform", or "You guys suck", are perhaps fun topics to toss around during cocktail parties and conference panels, but they’re hardly a productive discussion leading to meaningful software development. Even once past the politics, posturing and tomato-throwing, to try and have meaningful discussions of Java and .NET working together, the typical conversation moves to high-level buzzwordology like "Web services", "Enterprise Service Bus" or "Service-Oriented Architecture", with almost nothing concrete to show for it. Even then, once past the high-level discussion and into the low-level details, the talk is typically of SOAP and WSDL and WS- protocols, or of exchanging data through messages, or of hosting the JVM inside the CLR, or vice versa. In other words, to paraphrase the popular phrase, "You went ahead and talked about how to do it, without ever really talking about why you should do it."This article is the first in a series of content InfoQ will host over the next 8 months exploring the capabilities of mixed Java and .NET solutions. The content will also be tagged with the 'Java plus .NET' topic, allowing you to track all the content associated with this topic at www.infoq.com/j+n, as well as allowing you to turn the topic off if you are not interested in the subject.
Ted concludes:
Why bother with Excel when Java has formula engines? Why bother with WCF when we have JAX-WS, or with WPF when we have Java3D? Lest we be accused of favoritism or blatant Marketecture, let’s be frank and clear: just about anything .NET can do, Java can do as well, and vice versa. But let’s also be honest about one fact in particular: both platforms have particular areas of interest that they do very well. To the developer willing to set aside political dogma in favor of an open-minded discussion, playing each to its strengths can lead to some powerful benefits. Or, to quote Karl Marx rather liberally, "From each platform, according to its abilities, to each project, according to its needs."