java a dying language? if not what must one learn along with it.

[Unbidden Ghost]

Hi

I am in need of some guidance here. basically I want to know if Java is busy dying a slow death and if it is not what else does one need to learn to have a complete and marketable skill set?

java dying slow death: dot net has come out with some many new technologies including link and asp.net. is it possible that the new set of technologies added to the dot net framework is slowly strangling java? one of the reasons that i am asking is that i am currently programming in c# but i hate it. i want to move back to java but i dont want to go back to the language if it is just waiting to die.

what other technologies: what skills should one learn in addition to java? javascript is probably a very good choice. i take it mysql is also. but is that enough? what is the java counterpart of asp.net and is it absolutely necessary to learn it? i know that c# without asp.net and sqlserver can be a very hard skill to market via a cv(resume in america) but what about java?

[masijade]

Java is not even close to "a slow death", as you call it. The largest problem with .Net is that it runs only on Windows and most server architectures (which is where most commercial activity takes place) are not Windows.

I know, I know, .Net, in theory, can run anywhere, but for that a VM is needed and the only platform, besides Windows, where a .Net VM exists is Linux, and that in a very restricted form. The license costs for producing a VM are oppressive, and a Java VM already exists for most OSes (not to mention portable devices), so not many OS producers are really willing to create one, and no company that produces their own is willing to "give it away". So, go .Net and stay on Windows, or go Java and go everywhere (well, a lot of places, anyway), or go other languages and produce varying versions for the varying OSes.

If you are going to worry about having a "complete" skill set before you ever start looking for work, forget it. Generally however, web technologies (HTML, XML, CSS, SOAP, HTTP, SSL/TSL, probably in that order) and general DB (mainly simply SQL) are always pluses.

Edit: P.S. by problem with .Net, I mean the main problem .Net has with trying to "kill", or at least marginalise, Java, not necessarily a problem with the language itself. However, since it is advertised as "multi-platform", it is, at least, a "misleading" feature, as it is not, truely, multi-platform until those VMs (in full feature form) exist, which will be almost impossible since they have, again, tied so much of the stuff directly to the platform and all of that will need to be "worked around" making additional VMs, at the very least, very ineffecient.

[Unbidden Ghost]

thanks for your response. i appreciate it very much.

yes the "multiplatform" is misleading. as is the whole "program in your language of choice" since very few companies that I know of allows multiple languages on a project or even in the company itself. the company i am working for right now might even fail you during the entrance test if you use vb.net even though vb.net and c# reduce to the same IL code.

i am planning on starting looking for a java job in this month still probably. i was just worried that i might be moving to a "dying language". the whole new sets of technologies that dot net brings out every couple of years really had and i must admit still has me worried.

but i learned programming on java and it was the first language that i fell in love with. even now it is still up there as one of my favourites. i really like it much better than c#. it is simpler and elegant. dot net seems a bit clumsy (or perhaps it is just my imagination) to me.

thanks again for your reply.

[JamesCherrill]

It would be informative to do a quick scan of programming vacancies in the area that interests you and see what skills they are asking for.

[Stefano Mtangoo]

try Tiobe though it is not accurate but it will give you at least starting point