RE: Looking for opinions on education

FWIW, I do both Java and .NET, and I would never willingly choose .NET.



-----Original Message-----
From: John Yeung [mailto:gallium.arsenide@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2017 9:44 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Looking for opinions on education

On Thu, Feb 16, 2017 at 6:36 PM, <rjrjr64@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I am ashamed to say that I’ve not kept up with the latest and greatest features of our platform.

Hey, at least you are aware that there is new stuff out there. That's more than plenty of other midrangers can say.

That said, I am diving in to learning newer languages and was wondering what your thoughts were. I am considering dot net and Java. Should I take one before the other? Are there other languages/techniques that I should also be considering?

First, I would like to make one thing very clear: There are practically no bad choices. Learning almost anything that is "new to you" is a positive thing in my view. Don't let fear of making "the wrong choice" stop you from making *a* choice.

You mentioned .NET and Java. Both of those would be fine choices. With .NET you have to further choose a specific language; C# would be the one that is most similar to Java. If you talk to experienced programmers of both languages, you'll find consensus that C# is the "nicer" of the two languages. But Java is a natural choice for midrangers, because Java is already on your i and can interact reasonably smoothly with RPG.

I disagree with the assessment that Java is passé. It is not the new and sexy thing, but it is still a juggernaut. It is still the primary language for Android development. It is still one of the most common programming languages being taught in schools.

Some others took the time to ask what kind of apps you're interested in writing before giving any recommendations. That's definitely a pertinent question, and a smart move. I'll hold off on any further thoughts (as you might guess, I have a lot!) until you respond, or at least until the thread develops further.

John Y.