Java - the language and platform is as entrenched in enterprises as Cobol was in its heyday. According to Sun President & CEO, Jonathan Schwartz, there exists 4 million Java developers worldwide, 650 million PCs have been shipped with Java, and 350 million mobile phone handsets are enabled by Java. And this was in 2004 at the JavaOne event. You can't get more "enterprisey" than Java.

Java was created by a team led by James Gosling in 1991 with the express goal of creating a language + platform that can run on multiple operating systems without a re-compile, has in-built support for network programming, be able to securely execute remote code and follow object-oriented methodology.

In The Art of Java, by Herbert Schildt and James Holmes, Schildt and Holmes state "Java so fundamentally altered how we thought about programming that the history of computer languages can be divided into two eras: Before Java and After Java." They go onto say "Programmers in the Before Java world created programs that ran on a stand-alone machine. Programmers in the After Java world create programs for a highly distributed, networked environment. No longer does a programmer think in terms of a single computer. Instead, the network is the computer, and today we programmers think in terms of servers, clients, and hosts."

Personally, I continue to use both C++ and Java, C++ upwards of 10 years and Java for over 8 years and  I picked programming in grad school(crap, I am old). Though I love C++ (get a rush while manipulating pointers without memory leaks/crashes), I find Java  with its supporting  libraries especially their .net, .sql packages, a lot easier to put together the kind of apps I put together. Check OdinJobs search engine, its 100% Java .

How Does Java Compare with Other Languages

Java has had its share of bad to crappy packages (AWT anyone), I am not a big fan of applets either. Applets was supposed to be the technology that brings programs over the net, but from my personal experience, in real-life it was very different from the marketing spiel. It was slow, required the right version of the Java plugin, didnt render the same in all browsers and on the whole was very flaky. Java still compares favorably for enterprise development, be it web applications or stand alone applications. Here is a pros and cons of Java versus other languages.

Where is Java Now

Java in 12 years has become ubiquitous in corporate IT shops. Java is forging ahead in mobile, embedded  application, and is dominant in server side applications. Java has to navigate the .Net challenge from Microsoft and also face upto the challenges from dynamic languages in web applications.

The Java Market Overview provides a comprehensive demand and salary variation across the United States.

 

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