.NET versus J2EE 6

[randysmid]

Hi,
I am posting this in both the VB.NET forum and J2EE. Our organization has decided to choose between .NET or J2EE.

1) Can anyone provide information that will help us in our decision?
2) Has anyone worked with both java AND VB.NET, and come up with their own preference? If so, why have you chosen the tool you are now using? If it was a company decision that you had no control over, which tool would you have preferred?
3) We will be using an Oracle database as one of our backends, and this database is on the opposite side of the U.S. Any thoughts on which development strategy is best considering this scenario?
4) We have a substantial investment in Windows 2000 at our corporate headquarters. Thoughts?

Any ideas, thoughts, concerns, etc. are greatly appreciated!!!
HTH,
Randy Smith
California Teachers Association

 

[chiph]

1) Can anyone provide information that will help us in our decision?

Maybe.
;-)

2) Has anyone worked with both java AND VB.NET, and come up with their own preference? If so, why have you chosen the tool you are now using? If it was a company decision that you had no control over, which tool would you have preferred?

I used Java back in the 1.0 JDK days, and I've been reading Java Developer's Journal ever since. My opinion is that Java has too many fingers in the pot - looking at the APIs, they are very fragmented, with different groups in the Java community pushing different ways to do the same task. One thing I like about the .NET framework is that it's very uniform.

In my case, the company is a Microsoft shop, so the decision to move to .NET was made for me. But I would have chosen it anyway.

I note that you mention VB.NET. You should understand that the choice of VB.NET vs. C#.NET vs COBOL.NET is a minor one compared to the decision to use the framework itself. Most of your learning curve will be on the framework, not any one language. The differences between VB.NET and C# are largely a matter of syntax (although C# can do some things that VB.NET can't, and is reportably more stable than VB.NET)

3) We will be using an Oracle database as one of our backends, and this database is on the opposite side of the U.S. Any thoughts on which development strategy is best considering this scenario?

How big into Oracle are you? If you're a huge Oracle shop, then Java would be a natural choice, as starting with 8i, Java is in the database (you can write stored procs in either Java or Oracle's PL/SQL). If you're just using it as a place to stash your data, then you could go either way, as Oracle now has a native .NET data provider for 9i.

4) We have a substantial investment in Windows 2000 at our corporate headquarters. Thoughts?

It depends on your corporate culture, and the direction the company is heading in. If you have a lot of *nix people, then Java would be a better choice.

Chip H.

 

[randysmid]

Chip,
This is excellent information for my research. I appreciate your answers, and here is a star for your time and effort to help me!!! HTH,
Randy Smith
California Teachers Association

 

[jags22]

My company had a similar decision to make about 8 months ago. We decided to go with Java and J2EE framework because it fit our needs better than .Net. The funny thing about it is that our shop also as a .Net side to it so we talk about the benefits of each at lunch and such. This is what I found out:
1. If you have technical savvy people working for you, you should consider the J2EE but if you don't I wouldn't even consider it.
2. We had needs that needed to be filled by using outside vendors software so we went with J2EE. The tools we are using to create our web services are at this time the top tools on the market.
3. If you need something developed quickly, there is no comparison .Net is the way to go. Our development time using J2EE is always longer than the .Net groups. And we do have some very good programmers.
4. If you want something that is proven, I would choose J2EE. Let me explain that I give this to J2EE for the reason that it is more established.

I think in the long run you have to assess your needs and decide what your priorities are. I do agree with Chip that Oracle is setup a little better for Java but if you are determined to use the .Net framework you can get around that. Good luck

 

[randysmid]

Hi,
Thank you Jags22 for your insights. A star for you too!!!

HTH,
Randy Smith
California Teachers Association

 

[Craig0201]

Randy,

Try

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnbda/html/bdasamppet.asp

A link here is provided to a report written by a J2EE middleware supplier who found .NET was a little faster then J2EE. Say, 5 times faster!!! And with 5 times less code too....And J2EE Petshop is given as best practice. Interesting reading!

Craig

 

[randysmid]

Craig,
Thank you for the link to the article on MSDN. A star for your time and effort. You were right, it is interesting reading.
Do you use .NET in your work?

HTH,
Randy Smith
California Teachers Association

 

[Craig0201]

Indeed. VB.Net with Windows forms and Web Services at the moment.

Craig

 

[dilettante]

Then there is the possibility that a good hunk of .Net may soon be multiplatform as well. Search for "mono" for the state of this effort.

SourceForge also has an open-source IDE that currently works with the .Net SDK: #develop (search for "SharpDevelop&quot. VB support isn't strong yet, but C# is getting there. They plan to port this to Mono when they get a few kinks worked out (it sounds like mostly GUI issues).

So... yes you CAN do .Net development for free (no VS.Net) and without having to use NotePad and manually compile/test. Just install .Net Framework 1.0 SDK (free), #develop (free), and WebMatrix (free). Great for getting started if you are cheap and honest. 1.1 support coming soon too.

Of course it doesn't beat VS.Net, which is a monster.

 

[randysmid]

dilettante,
Thank you for the effort and time to provide an answer. A star for you too. LOL

HTH,
Randy Smith
California Teachers Association