I find java to be extrmely good only when it comes to j2me Then you have not explored the true power of java. Ironically J2ME has had the slowest adoption rate of most any Java Technology (in my opinion). Java's power is in its J2SE and J2EE environments and rests on its platform independence, strong Object Oriented nature, easy of multi-threading, robust APIs, and many other things. Since there are dozens of other threads on JavaRanch that tote up the benefits of Java, I will not get into any more detail on the subject.
So how can JSP be popular when it takes the time for class conversion from java code which takes a long time to process on the server ? Yes I read that only the first time it is slow since the class file gets stored after the 1st time & gets that file the next time the page is loaded. This perceived weakness is perpetually harped upon, overemphasized and generally misrepresented by any one -- such as ASP and PHP proponents -- that wishes to try to discredit JSP. First off, I do not know what quantifies as "a long time to process on the server", but the translation and compilation time of a JSP to bytecode is not extraordinarily long, as some critics like to exclaim. Moreover, as you point out, it only happens the first time the page is accessed. Even that can be prevented, as there are tools -- available both separately and in most Servlet Aware Web Servers out there -- that allow you to pre translate and compile your JSP's before deployment. This eliminates any delay, making the pages instantly available to the client. And since Servlets (& thus JSP�s since JSP�s are translated into Servlets) are multithreaded by nature, they are very efficient and fast.
Still...most hosts have PHP or ASP.NET and very few have JSP. I know of plenty of hosting providers that support JSP. I also think you�ll find that more hosting companies provide PHP and ASP because they are more popular choices among small and personal web sites. JSP is very popular among large enterprises (as is ASP) and they will usually have there own datacenters and not use hosting companies.
So how can JSP be popular JSP is popular because it is efficient, powerful, scalable, portable, secure, inexpensive (with free IDE�s, API�s, libraries, servers, frameworks, etc), maintainable, and more.
I have never used PHP and only know a little about it. There are also a thousand debates in forums and articles all over the web comparing JSP, ASP.net, PHP. I tend to find many, if not most, such debates & articles are
heavily biased one way or the other making it difficult to separate fact from propaganda & slander. Developers tend to be very passionate about their chosen technologies. I would therefore encourage you to do
extensive research into the subject, researching the source of the comments just as much as the comments themselves, before making any conclusions. I think in the end each technology has its advantages. In my opinion based on what research I have done, I think JSP/Servlet/Java lends itself far better to enterprise level systems then PHP does. But then that is just my opinion, and since I work on large enterprise web applications powered by J2EE (including JSP�s), I too may be a little biased.
