Applets in the Real World

Anyone here got a more than theoretical background in Java?

I just seem to recall reading somewhere (Canadian Mind Products website, maybe or Thinking in Java - Bruce Eckells free book) that in the modern world nobody uses applets any more. Everyone uses Java Web Start (the function of which I've forgotten). True? False? Neither?

Well I frankly dislike Java, however I do know for a fact that the Sanlam Share Trade site uses Java applets for their charting components.

It's not altogether dead, however the pulse is barely there

I'm a Java programmer by profession and in all my years coding - I've never made an applet for commercial use. In actualy fact, today was the first time in a long time I found one used on a website. (Hilarious thing was that "This applet requires an older version of Java" displayed instead of the applet.)

Generally, you can use Flash and DHTML to accomplish most of the things you would want to achieve with an applet.

I think they still teach them because it's one way of showing a lot of concepts quickly.

Still, nothing I learned from Java courses prepared me for the real world. They should concentrate more on frameworks.

Thanks guys! Ja, I suppose they are of Academic interest, which is a start for someone like me who knows little. (Practical experience == 0.)

I do worry that at the end of it all I'm still going to know diddly, every now and then.

Make note to self. Flash. There's a book on that lying around here somewhere.
DHTML? That doesn't ring a bell? Is it an extension of XML or something?

Well mate, you're going to be upset at the end then, because you will know diddly

Varisty doesn't prepare you for "real world" development, however it does atleast give you some groundwork and hopefully the ability to solve problems.

As for your last paragraph: Don't look at flash for the time being. Start on an actual development language, like PHP/ASP.NET etc. if you're into the web atleast. DHTML stands for Dynamic Hypertext Markup Language - technically an extension of HTML with JavaScript.

I still say, go C# !!!!

Sorry, i'm a platform junky, web's nice and all, but I prefer the power of platform.

Er ... OK ... so the next stupid question is: What's "platform"?

C# is Microsoft's answer to C++ , right? Looked at it once upon a time, but then went and mucked about with C for some strange reason, instead. (It had no characters after its name, so I thought, "OK, so that'll be the nice simple one to start with, and then build up to the strange looking ones).

Thanks for the tip. PHP... I've seen things on that somewhere. Am I into Web? Hell, I don't know.

I'd better bloody well find out then, hadn't I?

C# is similar to C++ in that it has object oriented concepts, but it has more features and (I find) is easier to read amongst other things. The best bet would be to read up on it at wikipedia.

As for working out what languages you should be experimenting in, it all depends on where you are now and where you want to be. Are you aiming on getting into the programming market or will programming just be a hobby?

Quote
eddy
C# is Microsoft's answer to C++ , right?

That would be taking a very big shortcut...
C was created in the iron age of computing. (in the bronze age they used assembly, stone age was punch cards...)
Then some guy got smart and made C objective, called it Objective C or C++. Could be the start of the middle ages?
So somewhere along the line people realize that C and C++ is generally a good idea but the industrial age is coming and the new guys won't know how to handle pointers and other little things without stuffing it up royally.
So the guys @ Sun decided to create a new language that handles the pointer problem for you and drops most of the problems inherent to C and C++. They called this nice new language Java.
Programmers around the world partied like it was the new millennium!

So MS also liked Java. So much that they created their own IDE, Visual J++. MS also had the fastest Java virtual machine for windows. Java also had performance problems.
Problem is, the name J++ was not Java and they added a data type and another feature, can't remember what. So Sun sued their BIGGEST Java partner!

Long story short, MS was told to stop doing things to Java and pay Sun some money.
MS did and responded by developing C#.

So, C# becomes the darling of MS developers around the world and replaces Java on the (MS) desktop. Java ends up on mostly Linux servers.

All this is very sad because Java could have been great and MS and the FOSS people could have had something to talk about. Now it's just an all out fight.

Cobus Neethling

Are design patterns and data structures that UNISA applicable in the real world???

Design patterns definitely! Every job interview I've attended has consisted of design pattern questions. And you are expected to know on the job how to implement different patterns, or when you get to design the code, what patterns would work best.

Data structures are another thing that you always get asked about it job interviews. While working though, you won't really be writing linked lists from scratch but it's useful to know data structures so that you know how best to store the information in memory based on what you want to be able to do with it.

Absolutely! Just knowing a little bit of this stuff gives you an edge over the average programmer.

Cobus Neethling

Thanks okes. It's really good to hear the opinions of those who're actually turning code into real world apps already. The very human (hopelessly human, one could almost say - to quote Kansas or someone like that) history of how these things came into being makes fascinating reading for all its own reasons, too.

I was thinking. Saying "I don't know what I'm into" is a bit of a drippy sort of statement, isn't it? Yes, it's a true statement in a way, but it got to me to thinking those postponed thoughts about what to make of the base of knowledge in the long run. If I had my own way, and the world was made just for me, then I think I'd want to be in robotics or something like that. But that's really for the very very very smart kids at MIT (and as hobby for old gits, one day, maybe - any of you play CNC milling in your free time? I don't; just sounds really interesting). So that's what I'm "into". Dreamspeak isn't a whole lot less drippy than "Well here I am just wandering round like a lost fart looking for a nose to get into", but it is at least a little bit less drippy.

Design Patterns are what differentiates a Smart Programmer from a Loose Cannon.

Another thing. It is not the academic institution's job to teach you frameworks. You do that by yourself. It is their job to give you the fundamentals to understand the frameworks.