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http://www.JspInsider.com/ .
***** IN THIS ISSUE **************************************************
News
1:Live JSP Chat at the Sun web site.
2:Disney 'Goes' to Open Source.
3:Introduction to ASP+.
4:Secant ships new internet server for server-side Java hosting.
Rambles
1: The Law of Supply and Demand
2: Tea and JSP
Links
1:Converting Between ASP and JSP.
2:Transcript to the last SUN JSP chat.
3:A tag library tutorial.
4:Java 1.4 and Beyond.
5:Give Java Applets a Second Chance.
6:Serving XML with JavaServer Pages.
**********************************************************************
================================================================
THE LATEST NEWS
================================================================
1)Live JSP Chat at the Sun web site. 8/8/2000 11:00 am PST/7:00 pm GMT
The JDC Chat Sessions is presenting the "Core Servlets and JavaServer
Pages Technology" chat featuring guest Marty Hall. This is great
chance to talk to fellow developers and to learn the latest and
greatest news about Java Server Pages.
2)Disney 'Goes' to Open Source (7/26/2000 )
Go.com, a Disney company, released Tea as open source software.
Tea is based upon Java and built for web development. Tea was
designed specifically to make web development easier by splitting
apart data handling from the web content. Tea was developed since
Go.com wanted simpler products than JSP and ASP for the web site
designer.
3)Introduction to ASP+ (Chris Kinsman, 7/2000)
Microsoft has announced a total rewrite of the popular ASP web
development software. ASP+ will be faster and offers many improved
server-side features. ASP+ is a radical change from ASP and fixes
many of the limitations of the current ASP software. After this
rewrite, ASP looks a a lot more like JSP!
4) Secant ships new internet server for server-side Java hosting
(7/25/2000)
Secant Technologies has shipped Extreme Internet Server 3.5,
a web application server optimized for both Java Servlet (API 2.1)
and Java Server Pages (version 1.0). Extreme Internet server has
many features to support mission critical environments.
Pricing starts at $895 per server.
================================================================
Rambles by Casey Kochmer
================================================================
**************** The Law of Supply and Demand ****************
Times are good if you are a Java Developer. In fact, from a
developer's point of view, it could be called the golden age of Java.
In article after article, we now see how much in demand we are as Java
programmers. After reading Anne Chen's article, this point of view is
reinforced. However, if you look closely at the article you may
see something that isn't mentioned, The equilibrium between the
supply of Java programmers and the demand for programming in Java
is changing. Why do I say this? Well, my reasons include:
1) Java has become a standard language for college students.
2) While the demand for Java programming is high, the supply of
competent Java programmers is still quite limited.
In other words, if an employer can't find a Java programmer, they
will instead change to a language of development for which they can
get adequate programming support. (For us, that means employers
will consider ASP instead of JSP.)
3) If the money is there, more programmers will learn Java to fill the
demand. Supply will increase.
4) Java is a stable language. It doesn't radically change every release,
so the skill set is easy to maintain. This means the average Java
programmer can stay in the market a long time.
5) In a tight market, more Java project failures occur due to mistakes
by less qualified people. This drives some customers away from
using Java.
So, what does all this mean?
1) The supply of Java programmers will increase slowly
(due to training time), so expect a transition phase of 3-6 years
before enough Java programmers are available to meet the demand.
2) If the current trend continues, Java will indeed become the Cobol of
the future. This will take 10 years to realize.
3) In the interim, as companies get burned by bad code from inexperience
programmers, they will ask for more experience programmers and/or
some certification of skills.
4) To be successful JSP developers, understanding what ASP can deliver
is vital. ASP is the market standard to beat, since many customers
seriously consider it for projects due to, in part, the current
shortage of qualified Java programmers.
5) If you are a company which needs Java programmers, your business
should pace itself for the next two to five years, as the pool of
competent Java developers expands. If you are a Java developer,
then make the most of the next few years, because your skill set is
in limited supply but relatively high demand. The next few years will
offer huge opportunities for the savvy Java developer.
Ok, these are not earth shattering revelations. My conjectures are based
upon previous experiences and current data. The future doesn't always
follow the past and unforeseen events always exist on the horizon.
This leads to the last conclusion:
Due to the current tight market conditions, the market place can change
extraordinarily fast. If the balance of Java programmers and
Java projects doesn't find equilibrium quickly enough, the market place
will find another solution. Sun is aware of this and is doing everything
it can to help the pool of Java developers grow. However, the growth
might not be enough and new solutions, like Microsoft's .Net
initiative, could derail Java's emerging golden age into becoming
just a Java fairy tale.
Why bring up all this conjecture? As developers, we can and do
influence the market, especially the tool set being used. Don't be
afraid to stand up and help others. Be vocal and support JSP. Being
complacent now, in our greatest time of success, could ultimately lead
to roads that we would rather not travel.
Referenced and Supporting Materials:
[Article] Retaining Staff: A Class Act (Anne Chen, 7/17/2000)
[Article] 2000 Java Pro Salary Survey Results (Sean Gallagher, 7/2000)
[Article] Sun Signs More Universities to Solve 'Java Crisis'
(Eric Wilson 7/11/2000)
****************** Tea and JSP ******************
Go.com released "Tea" as its open source
solution for easy web development. Tea is a Servlet/Java-based
web development language. Tea was developed to fulfill two needs. First,
Tea is a language which reinforces the separation of the business logic
from business presentation. Second, Tea is intended to provide easy
access for content designers and non-programmers to modify content.
In the press release for Tea in Wired News, Go.com's Reece Wilton says,
"We don't think that Java programmers should be stuck with JSPs, because
we don't think it's the right model for development." Wilton goes on to
say, "In the past, what has happened with technologies like JSPs and
ASPs is that the producers have had to get engineers to do a lot of the
presentation work, which doesn't make sense because the engineers'
expertise is not in making good presentations."
Mr. Wilton makes an interesting point, but misses the mark in
describing JSP. JSP is designed for software engineers as
a tool to manipulate data and business logic, which then feeds into
HTML presentations. JSP is great because it simplifies server-side Java
for the programmer and provides several methodologies for linking Java
and client-side HTML. JSP, as a tool, is not meant for direct use by
content designers, as Mr. Wilton points out. From a programming
perspective, JSP is very powerful in that it lets engineers solve
complex and dynamic web content design requirements in a simple and
direct manner. However, Go.com is driven by content, and they rightly
saw JSP wasn't currently a tool for the content designer. So Go.com
built Tea.
Tea points to the need for JSP programmers to address the development
of designer-friendly tools. JSP was designed to let engineers,
among other things, create easy-to-use tools for content designers.
Programmers can use JSP tools to build their own bridges to general
content designers, such as class, bean and tag libraries.
JSP is still new --- we're still kicking the tires, building the
infrastructure for supporting JSP.
Tag libraries, seem to be the key to building a bridge for content
designers. The question Tea brings to my mind is, 'Are there
success stories using Tag Libraries?'
We at JSP Buzz would like to hear from our readers and fellow
developers. Are you being successful with tag libraries in this
application? Have you been able to build JSP sites which are easy
for HTML designers to maintain? Send us an email at
JSPBuzz@Jspinsider.com and let us know your experiences. We will
share the results with everyone in the September 5th issue of the Buzz.
================================================================
Links of Interest
================================================================
[Article] Converting Between ASP and JSP (Casey Kochmer, 7/28/2000)
In this article, a series of annotated reference charts are provided to
help programmers move efficiently between ASP and JSP development
environments. Version 1.0 of this living document covers the following
topics: implicit objects, scripting blocks, scripting comments,
including files and file redirection.
[Chat] Transcript to the last SUN JSP chat. (Sun, 2/22/2000)
With a JSP live chat about to happen, you can take a peek at the last
JSP chat back in February.
[Tutorial] A Tag Library Tutorial. (Magnus Rydin, last updated 7/20/2000)
Magnus has written one of the nicest laid out tutorials I have seen.
It is clearly written and separated into nine finished lessons.
If you have been wanting to learn how to build a tag library, then this
is the tutorial for you.
[Slide Show]Java 1.4 and Beyond. (Elliotte Rusty Harold, 7/25/2000)
This is a quick and simple slide show based upon Elliotte
Rusty Harold's Atlanta Java User's Group presentation. While it
is only the abridged view of the full presentation, it still gives
a quick and concise evaluation of what we might expect out of Java 1.4.
[Article] Give Java Applets a Second Chance (Jeremiah S Talkar, 7/21/2000)
The article contains an in-depth explanation of how to communicate
between client-side JavaScript and active applets on your web page.
[Article] Serving XML with JavaServer Pages.
(Duan Yunjian and Willie Wheeler, 8/1/2000)
Learn how to use JSP with XML. This article builds an example web site
using JSP to serve up XML data.
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