I'm wondering if there is some kind of map or diagram or table or just a comprehensive list of all the different technologies in the
Java ecosystem. I am getting back into Java after taking a few courses in college. These courses were just a couple of years ago but the teachers were stuck in Java 1.2 land, so we didn't learn much about the latest technologies. Plus, sooo much has come out just in the last couple of years. All these technologies have cutsie names that tell me nothing about what the heck they do or even what major category of technology they fall into. And when people talk or write about them they always seem to assume that everyone knows what they are talking about. (Though, if everyone already knows it all, then why is that person talking or writing at all, anyway?)
Oddly, the summary of technologies covered under each forum category in this site is the closest I have come to a list of all these technologies and what the heck they are. I know, I could look up each and every funny
word I see or hear, but that does not guarantee that I will discover all the technologies that are available. Nor will it show me how that technology fits in with all the others. Can this JVM-based language call Java methods directly while this other one cannot? Does Eclipse have a plugin for this technology while Netbeans does not? These are of interest to me. My primary concern is that I will spend a lot of time learning some specific technology only to find out later that there was something much better, that everyone is using, but had slipped under my radar. I only have limited time to mess with this, and I don't want to waste any of it on dying technologies. (Though don't waste your time telling me that Java itself is dying. It may or may not be, but it meets my needs right now.) I am also just one of those people who are intensely interested in how lots of different things fit in together.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.