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In my view it's already legacy today, or very very close... There is a massive body of Java code that is firmly in maintenance only mode (in corporates I should

In my view it's already legacy today, or very very close... There is a massive body of Java code that is firmly in maintenance only mode (in corporates I should add - and mostly fin services).

plinkplonk 18y ago
And what do you see it being replaced by? Ruby? C#?
- fogus 18y ago
  If I had to guess, I'd say Scala.
- jwilliams 18y ago
  It's a mixture, of which one is certainly still Java. Suffice to say, over the last 2-3 years I've seen a lot less of the "let's build a large J2EE project". There are also a lot of large Java platforms out there (e.g. Internet Banking platforms) that are no longer under active development - maintenance and feature enhancements only. Organisations that once had large Java engineering rooms seem to be breaking them up. The biggest influence is outsourcing and offshoring. To an extend, big corporates don't really care about the underlying tech - they outsource to (say) Infosys and it's up to them how they actually implement it... and as a result, this varies greatly. The big outsourcers are still dominated by Java and C# (which C# gaining ground). The smaller vendors are much more varied, with Ruby and Python starting to feature a lot. In terms of new technology, there is a focus on things like Process Automation, Business Rules Engines, etc. I worked on a large imaging/workflow project recently that was almost entirely Ajax + Process Engine + Business Rules Engine.... (Admittedly, Java did underpin most of these components).
  - sigh400 18y ago
    I am with the school that the JVM will become primarily a host for other languages and that Java (the language) will move towards legacy status in the next few years. Clojure, Scala, Groovy, JRuby, JPython etc all are moving in interesting directions and Java is too mired in backwards compatibility and politics to do anything truly interesting. Java the language is very much closer to legacy then it is to innovation for sure.

In my view it's already legacy today, or very very close... There is a massive body of Java code that is firmly in maintenance only mode (in corporates I should add - and mostly fin services).

plinkplonk 18y ago

And what do you see it being replaced by? Ruby? C#?

fogus 18y ago
If I had to guess, I'd say Scala.
jwilliams 18y ago
It's a mixture, of which one is certainly still Java. Suffice to say, over the last 2-3 years I've seen a lot less of the "let's build a large J2EE project". There are also a lot of large Java platforms out there (e.g. Internet Banking platforms) that are no longer under active development - maintenance and feature enhancements only. Organisations that once had large Java engineering rooms seem to be breaking them up. The biggest influence is outsourcing and offshoring. To an extend, big corporates don't really care about the underlying tech - they outsource to (say) Infosys and it's up to them how they actually implement it... and as a result, this varies greatly. The big outsourcers are still dominated by Java and C# (which C# gaining ground). The smaller vendors are much more varied, with Ruby and Python starting to feature a lot. In terms of new technology, there is a focus on things like Process Automation, Business Rules Engines, etc. I worked on a large imaging/workflow project recently that was almost entirely Ajax + Process Engine + Business Rules Engine.... (Admittedly, Java did underpin most of these components).
- sigh400 18y ago
  I am with the school that the JVM will become primarily a host for other languages and that Java (the language) will move towards legacy status in the next few years. Clojure, Scala, Groovy, JRuby, JPython etc all are moving in interesting directions and Java is too mired in backwards compatibility and politics to do anything truly interesting. Java the language is very much closer to legacy then it is to innovation for sure.