Article Discussion: Migrating Java Applications to .Net

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I dont have a question but I do have a comment to make, you can take it as a question to you.

Why on earth would a java developer want to convert his/her code to C# or J# (to a proprietary technology) then just keeping it in java?

The article says nothing about why? its not as if it will not require further maintance cost/development cos?


I dont think this article does it justification.

This article was not discussing why you should do it, just how to do it if you want to.

There are a few reasons you may wish to convert code to .NET from Java. These include;
Lower maintenance costs (most likely).
You take advantage of the CLRs memory management etc.
You gain the ability to use XML Web Services and Remoting which .NET makes really simple.
.NET programs are more compatible with other programs than Java (in some cases, not all).
If development is continuing on the Java project then converting it to .NET first will likely save development costs as .NET development is much faster and easier than Java in a lot of cases.
Or you want to reap any of the other .NET benefits.

John, is it really less expensive? I've been hearing all the talk about how .NET is an expensive technology to invest in... Correct me if I'm wrong.

Thanks!

I been to the Sun(tm) Java Tech Days in London for last two days....

Most of the speakers who gave presentation were all x-microsoft programmer. and belive it or not they have admited about it and why they personally moved to Java.

Cost? I hear nothing about it?....


Now Answer me this: can the C# or the J# run on multiple devices with onthe fly compile? well java can....

I've seen the demo on New Sun One Studio that's pretty much does way more than what VS.NET has to offer plus has many expandable (plugin-ins) adaptors that can be used to communicate and integrate systems easily.

easy to use, cost effective, maintainable, and scaleable thats what Java is.

MS technology cant scale because windows core puts a big restrictions on it. plus have a hard time geting along with other systems.

Java is serious language and not a toy for kids as in VB and VB.NET.

Hmm. Very good points you put across.

Have you done any C#, J#, or VB.NET programming? (Or any other .NET language for that matter.) You'll find that the .NET Framework is the most amazing development framework you've ever come across.

Like most other languages/frameworks Java requires components to be installed to do a lot of "additional" stuff, the .NET Framework provides pretty much everything you need.

I've read performance tests comparing J2EE and the .NET Framework, all of which the .NET Framework came out on top.

Also, this is not part of my argument, I'm curious. Does Java support any 3D graphics technologies? DirectX, OpenGL? Using DirectX 9 with C# (and I think any .NET language) drastically reduces code, increases simplicity, and matches performance of other languages with DirectX. Now that's cool.

I do agree MS is a real pain when it comes to helping developers use .NET along with other stuff because of their business/rights oriented approach but 2 projects Mono (http://www.go-mono.com) and Portable.NET (http://www.dot-gnu.com) are helping to fix this by providing linux, FreeBSD, and other compatible versions.

When I mentioned it was cheaper I meant cheaper to develop, because you need less code and it's easier to code. Also, the .NET Framework is free, and so is the SDK. Now VS.NET costs a fortune, which is rather annoying, but you can get ASP.NET Web Matrix for free and new, free Open Source IDEs are being developed which will help everyone out.

IMHO the .NET Framework is the next evolution of computing, the only way you can know why I think that is if you start using it; It's the most well structured, simplest to use set of languages I've ever seen. Plus C#, VB.NET, J#, C++.NET, etc. are all interoperable so you can use your components over and over by simply dropping the DLL in the directory and viola, you start using it in your code.

I have another questions for you, I'm curious: I'm not big when it comes to Java, do you have to register Java assemblies/DLLs in order to use them? With the .NET Framework you just put it there and use it, done. Also, if an old version of a DLL is being used it stays in the cache after being overwritten with a new one until it's not being used. This means no more DLL versioning errors.

Another question: Does Java have anything equivalent to XML Web Services? And by this I mean both Remoting and ASP.NET Web Services. This feature means you can send data (including images, binary, files, etc.) from one application to another anywhere in the world as if they were on the same machine.

Another thing, one of the best thing about .NET and ASP.NET is that you can use same code, even the same DLLs without recompiling, for all of your Web Applications (excluding the UI) as you can for your Desktop Applications. While I know you can do this crudely in Java and other frameworks with the .NET Framework you just chuck the assembly/DLL in the /bin directory and it works, or if you're using the actual code you just throw it anywhere in your application. Plus, ASP.NET performance beats that of most other web based frameworks.

I am glad we've had this discussion, I'm going to look a little further into Java. I doubt I'll use it after using C# (I'm a little obsessed because it's so easy to use and it's so powerful) but I'd like to know a little more about it.