RE: opinions on "good news/bad news"... picking Websphere or MS .ASPor .NET

From: richard@xxxxxxxxxxx

Richard, Richard, Richard... <shaking head sadly>

1.) Websphere/Java Dev

Longer rampup and learning time.  (Typically limited to web development,
web services or clunky GUI interfaces. )

Gimme a break.  WDSC itself is a Java GUI, and it's on par with anything
Microsoft has ever done.  The RCP (Rich Client Platform) of Eclipse is built
on top of SWT, which is an incredible interface.  And (you'll hear this a
lot in this email) you're not locked into Microsoft.  The same programs
looks and runs great on Windows, Linux, Unix, and Mac.

WDSC/Eclipse takes more getting used to than Visual Studio env.

Oh snark.  I HATE parts of VS.  Much of it is counter-intuitive to me,
because I cam from Visual Age for Java.  You, on the other hand, came from
years and years of VB, so you like it.  I really think it's a preference
thing.  One thing about Eclipse is that it is VERY user-customizable; far
more so than VS.  And you're not locked into Microsoft.

Can do web services, but the environment setup can be a pain.

I used JAXB in Eclipse.  I simple copied all the JAR files into my lib
folder, pasted in the code from the example, and I was running Google
queries.  And you're not locked into Microsoft.

That being said, our enterprise workflow engine is written in Java and it
works well, but the Java development environment is not always for the
faint of heart.

And VB is not necessarily for industrial strength development.  A lot
depends on your mind set.  And of course... with Java you're not locked into
Microsoft.

Awesome Windows GUI app development tools

The Windows stuff is FAR better for thick client development than it is for
web development.  And while you can potentially use the web stuff on other
platforms, it's pretty touch and go.

Have you tried EGL and JSF?  Pretty fantastic drag-n-drop GUI builder for
the Web... and you're not locked into Microsoft.

Choice of C#, VB or J# for languages in the environment.

J#?  J#?!?!?!?  You are kidding me, right?

Can also use Java libraries with IKVM interfaces.  Ex: You can use JT400
API's for queries, program calls, record level access etc... (We've
written a cool, high level .Net wrapper for the JT400 Java toolbox.)

IKVM is pretty cool.  I will definitely look into it some more.  But do you
want to commit your mission critical systems to an Open Source package that
has no technical support options?

Can compile code to Java binaries that can be run directly on iSeries
(using Mainsoft - http://www.mainsoft.com) or any other box that runs Java
binaries.

At least Mainsoft offers support, although I don't know how much it costs.

Can write a base web service in less than 60 seconds.  OK, maybe 120
seconds the first time :-)

You mean expose, say, some VB logic as a web service?  That is pretty cool.
How do you deploy it on, say, WebSphere?

Bottom line is that the Visual Studio Environment is easier to learn for
most developers in my opinion, however I've been coding with VB much, much
longer than Java so I still have a bias even though we do a lot of cross
platform development too.

Yes you do have a huge bias <g>.  But that's okay.  I'm going to be doing a
lot of VS development this summer, so I'll be bugging you for tips. 

Another plus for the .Net side is the Mono open source project where you
can code .Net that runs cross platform.

The jury is still out for me on this project.  It's very interesting, but
I'll wait to see what effect Vista has on this (and IKVM and Mainsoft).

Joe