I mean the Java language, not the beverage.

I’ve been working in Java for the last few days – just for kicks – and it’s been a mix of highs and lows:

Highs:

I haven’t worked in Java for about a year, and I’ve never worked in Java for an extended period. So the relearning process – each time – is fun in that it’s great to rediscover this language.

Each time I go back to Java, I have more programming notches on my keyboard, so I better appreciate all that’s gone into this language. It’s considerable.

Having done the Java-installation process before, I didn’t have to do this process for my current machine. Yay. Installation of the SDK is still somewhat a geek fest.

My years of working with Linux – for the most part, straight command-line – are paying off for Java. The lack of a good IDE (see “Lows,” below) don’t hurt that much. I just code in my HTML editor (currently ColdFusion Studio), and compile and run from the (DOS) command line.

Lows:

I haven’t worked in Java for about a year, and I’ve never worked in Java for an extended period. So the relearning process – each time – is frustrating. I keep wanting to do things I could do before (say, Process C) without learning Process B. Jumping ahead…

I still hate the AWT – sure, I can use Swing, as well/in place of, but the AWT is still essential in many ways (at least for demos that I look at to learn and so on). Struts, currently, are far beyond me.

My favorite IDE – Symantec’s Visual Cafe, very MS Visual Studio like – was sold to someone years ago and they, in turn, sold it to someone else. I think the product is currently either dead or way too expensive (~$3,000?). And my copies (v1 and the Database Developer’s version) won’t run on my main box (Win2000) – they don’t recognize Win2000 as NT. Crap. Visual Cafe kicked but over Sun’s Forte and Borland’s JBuilder (both of which I have installed on my Win2000 box), and Visual Cafe is a much older product. Interesting.