[TS]A story of Java's improbable return to prominence

[Jaydip]

http://www.techspot.com/news/54149-a-story-of-javas-improbable-return-to-prominence.html

"General-purpose programming language Java was lauded as the next big thing a decade or so ago. As I can attest to, it was being taught as an entry-level programming course at colleges across the country and billed as the platform to beat with regards to app development – both on the PC and cell phones. Things didn’t exactly play out as many had hoped, however. A string of security bugs and overall poor decisions from creator Sun Microsystems led to what LinkedIn principal staff engineer Jay Kreps described as some annoying thing that really outdated websites try to make you download.
You’d be forgiven to think that Java is dead in the water. Truth be told, it’s very much alive and well and has remarkably become the primary foundation for some of the web’s largest and most ambitious operations..." I found the article very entertaining.It is indeed sad when a language which had so much potential faded away from prominence.

 

[GregGreen]

If you'd like to read the actual article, instead of the link bait article, http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/09/the-second-coming-of-java/.

 

[BrightCandle]

The stupid thing is Java rose to being the top programming and still is. The security issues have largely killed off the client side Java but much of the modern web runs on Java servers. While its popularity is in decline it still has an enormous following. This article just rewrote history, its categorically wrong.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Yes, the article writer seems to miss that it's client-side Java that died, and has stayed dead. Server-side Java has never left us, so there is no "second coming."

I award Cade Metz no points, and may god have mercy on his soul.

(And someone ought to tell him that .NET has this magical bytecode pixie dust too.)

 

[Maximilian]

The stupid thing is Java rose to being the top programming and still is. The security issues have largely killed off the client side Java but much of the modern web runs on Java servers. While its popularity is in decline it still has an enormous following. This article just rewrote history, its categorically wrong.

What is replacing java? C#?

 

[Cogman]

What is replacing java? C#?

I think saying that client side java is dead is a little wrong. Client side embedded java is dead. Java on the client side still lives on as swing apps and internal tools.

In fact, most browser pluginy thingys are dying/dead. Primarily thanks to Apple's ban of flash in IOS (Seriously, that basically killed mobile flash which has caused all of flash to enter a death spiral. One of my coworkers was a former Adobe employee that worked on the flash project when this all went down).

So what replaced java as a web page plugin? Primarily javascript.

 

[BrightCandle]

Javascript on the client side has now taken over where the Java plugin used to be, clearly its a lot better for the task than Java applets ever were. Javascript is also growing on the server side, but its still a relatively small following.The server side is much more complex of a picture. There is just a general divergence in the languages being used. Many server side apps are now written in a number of languages so we have a lot of different things happening.

I don't see an obvious trend in the server space to say any one language is taking over, most of the big languages historically (c, java, objective-c, c++) are in decline. The Tiobe index right now just shows nothing useful.

 

[Leros]

Looking back, I think everybody regrets making Java a browser plugin.

Java is still great for multi-platform applications and its widely used for server-side programming.