Re: My biased opinion:
The problem with Java is the HUGE amount of APIs
that you have to learn to be productive. You can
be operational with Perl in a few days, and be really
good in a month or so (if you were any good to start
with).
Java takes much longer. Let me add, though, I like
Java. I spent 2 days cramming for the Sun Java test,
with NO exposure to it before then, and failed by one
question. Imagine the idiots that lucked out the
same way and now claim to be programmers.
I tried it that way simply to get the cert since my
company is a Sun dealer, and I needed one additional
cert to maintain our authorization. Good thing I
failed. I then got to go to a Solaris kernel tuning
class instead.
I then spent about 3 months actually learning it,
for a paying project. I can't claim any expertise, and
very little experience now.
It seems there is a new set of APIs every week, depending
on the style of interface, network, database, etc, etc, etc.
But I was learning it in the days of the AWT to SWING
migration.
For quick data mangling is sucks, but as an alternative
to ANY M$ language, it's fine.
Don't bother with 'C' (says the old C programmer). If you
MUST go to that type of language, then go Java. If not,
go Perl.
