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Blog Archive 2005-December 2005-November 2005-October 2005-September 2005-August 2005-July 2005-June

Sat, 05 Nov 2005

Beyond Java: What's Next?

I just finished reading Beyond Java by Bruce Tate, author of several books including Bitter EJB, Better, Faster, Lighter Java and Spring: A Developer's Notebook. Let me start by saying that I really liked the book.

Who should read this book?

Anyone who writes Java for a living. In fact, anyone who works with code and also looks ahead of the game to see where things are headed next. Bruce has said that he's really good at seeing things from 10,000 feet high. This book gives you that type of high-level perspective but then it layers in practical application.

What's the big picture?

Bruce starts with the environment and situation that helped Java get started and then helped it thrive. He then talks about where Java is today, where it's headed, and how the situation parallels the early days of Java. He shows how the time is ripe for a new disruptive technology to emerge. Java continue to focus on the enterprise, and it's doing very well there, but the barrier to entry to for the new developer is getting ever higher. As Java gets more and more complex, the time is becoming more ripe for a new low-end replacement. Something that easy to use, easy to get started with and easy to become very productive with.

There's an good overview of a number of languages ranging from Perl to PHP to Smalltalk and where each one is positioned in the market. Bruce comes down hard on the side of Ruby, Rails and continuations... or at least hard on the side of the next big thing sharing a lot of the same traits those technologies bring to the table.

What's to like?

There are several parts of this book I really enjoyed.

I liked the historical overview of the Java language in it's early days. I worked in Smalltalk long enough ago to remember some of the history. The perspective of Microsoft's role in the rise of Java was also refreshingly honest instead of the obligatory Microsoft bashing so many books include.

There is an entire chapter devoted to introducing you to Ruby, another for Rails and a third for continuation servers. Each of the introduction chapters was excellent. Very well written and easy to follow. I've actually gone through the Ruby snippets in the book and been able to run them all. I consider the sign of a good book when I am pulled in enough to actually run the code samples.

What's not to like??

The book is about half history and half future with a strong bent towards Bruce's vision of the future. If you see what Bruce sees and agree, you'll love this book. If you don't agree with where Bruce sees the industry headed then I think you'll get annoyed by the Ruby focus. But I can't complain about anything else in the book. I really liked it.

What's the Summary?

What were the factors that led to Java's rise? Are those factors in play again to bring another technology to the forefront? If so, what will that new technology look like? How can I get a head start with the new technology?

Enjoy!

Jared

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