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Putting Java career on hold to pursue other technologies?

 
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Hello,

I am a somewhat recent college graduate (bachelor's completed four years ago), and I consider myself as a junior level developer still. I have been exposed to various areas in the IT/development world, and a stable Java development position has always eluded me (always getting pulled into other areas like testing, database development, project contract losses causing issues etc.). Now I have ended up in a position where I am to develop a new web-app version of a small (but not that small) desktop server application using the .net framework (it was not my decision to use this technology). What I want to know is, would it be a good idea to stick with this position? I have never been tasked with so much responsibility, especially without a mentor (no one on this project, including me, knows .NET development), so I am nervous, especially since I am learning things on my own. On one hand, I think this is a great learning opportunity to create an application from scratch, but on the other hand, I am hesitant because my career goal is to grow as a Java developer. As I learn more about .net MVC development and C#, I am seeing that many of the concepts could be transferable to Java web development (if my understanding is correct), so this worry is becoming less of an issue, but what I am worried about is whether I am unknowingly getting too far off the Java path (EJB, Spring, Hibernate, etc), losing time by developing in a different platform. The Java experience I have professionally is limited, so even though I have been in the working world for 4 years, I feel I am falling behind getting some kind of depth. My Java now-a-days is limited to studying for the higher level certifications, and I don't know how useful they are going to be a few months down the road.

Thank you for reading the long post, and I appreciate any input.
 
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Curious: if nobody knowns .NET why was it chosen?
 
John Freeman
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Bear Bibeault wrote:Curious: if nobody knowns .NET why was it chosen?



It was chosen because the existing systems and licenses are all Microsoft based (SQL server, visual studio, Visual C++ etc.).
 
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Sounds like the original app was a Windows app and someone thinks (hopes) that time and effort can be saved because "All You Have To Do Is" port it to the web.

How realistic that dream is is hard to say. If the original app was .Net-based, then there may be SOME portable code, although the cynic in me notes that sometimes code written in language A for Platform X require so much adaptation to move to Platform Y that it would have been faster and less expensive to simply rewrite the code from scratch. That can often be true even when switching platforms in Java.

I note with alarm that even if you do this, apparently you're going to be stuck with it for the indefinite future if no one else understands the platform but you.

There's nothing inherently wrong with being a .Net developer. Plenty of work on that platform. But the primary question is how much of a .Net guru do you wish to become?
 
John Freeman
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Tim Holloway wrote:Sounds like the original app was a Windows app and someone thinks (hopes) that time and effort can be saved because "All You Have To Do Is" port it to the web.

How realistic that dream is is hard to say. If the original app was .Net-based, then there may be SOME portable code, although the cynic in me notes that sometimes code written in language A for Platform X require so much adaptation to move to Platform Y that it would have been faster and less expensive to simply rewrite the code from scratch. That can often be true even when switching platforms in Java.

I note with alarm that even if you do this, apparently you're going to be stuck with it for the indefinite future if no one else understands the platform but you.

There's nothing inherently wrong with being a .Net developer. Plenty of work on that platform. But the primary question is how much of a .Net guru do you wish to become?



Thank you for your thoughts Tim. The app will be developed new without any porting because the existing application is in fact a Windows app. I intend on documenting everything as I start to design things, so that when the time comes for me to leave, my replacement (I will tell them to hire someone with .net experience of course; when I joined the project it was a very open ended type thing so I got on board hoping it would go down the Java path with the goal just to modernize) will be able to pick things up without much trouble. I don't know the answer to that final question you posted, but I decided to learn as much as possible to get a mostly finished decent quality product within 6 to 7 months, and then hope to get back to the Java world professionally.
 
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