Re: Understanding Object Usage

Blalock, Bill skrev:

Hey James:

I am not in total agreement with Thorbjørn, but I can't say I disagree either.

My take ... version 3 of EJB is getting traction and has good feedback ... third time is the charm. But most things that really use EJB are big framework applications which involve buying into the framework and buying tools. I wouldn't write them off.

Sure. The whole J2EE stack :D

Why add complexity if you don't need it? Many things can be easily done within a plain web container or a stand-alone application.

The basic technology for talking to databases is "JDBC" which is

essentially a tunnel allowing you to send SQL-statements and get the answers back.
I agree. If your only database engine is an i5 then consider the jtOpen direct file access tools. In some cases, especially considering your background, using these will be more efficient. On one hand these classes are more like what you already know how to use. They can be more efficient with big, complicated database relationships. On the other hand using these classes puts off learning other persistence options.

Are the direct file access calls fast "enough" to be competitive? I have just done a little stuff with these and personally I like SQL better (usually the SQL optimizer does a better job than me).

I would suggest that you create a small application with

JDBC to learn how it works because you need to know when using frameworks that do persistence because you WILL need to debug some day...

I can't say I disagree however I would suggest going directly to JPA (Hibernate or Eclipselink) or iBatis instead of learning JDBC in depth unless you will be working with apps that use JDBC which you have to maintain.

JDBC is too close to the metal. There is a lot of coding, condition handling and resource management. This is done for you with JPA or iBatis. You deal with it at a higher level and let JPA/iBatis take care of the details.

In all frameworks the devil is in the details. I maintain that an basic understanding of JDBC is important for an alround java programmer, otherwise Hibernate et.al. are too much black magic.
Again, when choosing a framework, choose one with more than one open source implementation if at all possible to get the best odds of it surviving.