Importance of swing
I spend 5 months learning swing and when looking for jobs came to know swing is not important at all. actually couple of recruting firms interview me and everyone was asking about j2ee, Struts, ejb, jsp, etc..
One recruiter asked me if i know anything else except core java i told him swing he grind and said sorry swing is useless.
A recent graduate should know about j2ee? Then college needs to offer courses in jsp, struts, ejb and etc..
Now my quest for learning j2ee have just started and hope to bug you guys for a little while.
[560 byte] By [
lrngjavaa] at [2007-11-27 5:26:22]
Swing is very important... If you are looking to work doing Java GUI development for applets or desktop applications.
For J2EE (JSP, EJB, etc), Swing is not important... Except for making tools that can manage things. For example , you might use Swing to make something that uses JMX to monitor an application (although a bit contrived as there's already existing tools most people can use).
There probably happens to be a lot more J2EE work out there, is the thing. Everything's web based. Learn HTML, CSS, Javascript as well.
Personally, I use Swing all the time, but I work doing applets and webstart apps.
Underlying this is the question: what should colleges and universities teach?
I think that the actual technology they teach is unimportant. What's important
are the deeper things, like being able to analyze problems and research solutions.
And with the increasing pace of technological change, this
is becoming more important, not less.
If you want to learn a specific technology, go to a trade school.
Message was edited by:
Hippolyte
It is good to know swing, it is not that useless. However a firm doesn't want their app to look exactly the same as every other Swing app. I believe knowing AWT is better becuase it is a platform for a custom GUI. (I am not positive, but I think that is what the diffrence is between Swing and AWT.)
Its funny you have brought this up. I have just recently graduated and been job hunting for a grad position and most employers were asking for exactly the same, more J2EE stuff, ejb etc. Having learnt none of this stuff at Uni. However, these are things that are easy to learn having learnt the underlying concepts and theory of programming and system architectures.
Swing is very useful and I have used it in several of my projects, so it shouldn't be discredited as a GUI toolkit, it is still used in industry. The important thing to remember is that Java is a vast language with many different facets and learning the underlying concepts at University aid your own learning in exanding upon your knowledge.
> I believe knowing AWT is better becuase it is a platform for a custom> GUI. (I am not positive, but I think that is what the diffrence is between Swing and AWT.)Actually it's the other way around: Swing can be customized while AWT cannot.
I think swing looks pretty sexy in Windows, on Linux & Mac it looks native to the OS. :D
Swing can be easily customized to take the "Look and Feel" of whatever operating system you're on:
UIManager.setLookAndFeel("com.sun.java.swing.plaf.motif.MotifLookAndFeel"); // Motif
UIManager.setLookAndFeel("com.sun.java.swing.plaf.windows.WindowsLookAndFeel"); // Windows
You get the picture...
Anyway - saying that Swing is useless is very far from the truth. I don't think that there is a single aspect of Java that is useless. Take a look at some of the articles, in particular the article regarding the [url http://java.sun.com/javaone/sf/2007/articles/toyshow.jsp]Toy Show[/url]. Java is being used for some amazing things right now.
I am currently using a very even mix of Swing and J2EE. A previous poster mentioned WebStart - which, might I add, is an amazing technology. Combine rich applets, WebStart, servlets, etc. and you can get some pretty incredible results.
Thanks guys for the excellent response. For me i really love swing but recently i have been hunting jobs and this is what i get j2ee freakin everywhere. May be in the future college can offer 1 course on jsp, servlets and can combine intro and data structures in one class. Excuse my language.
Oh Well Lets see what happens. I appreciate.
Thanks
when i graduated college, 9 years ago, i was saying the same thing about C++ technologies
for what it is worth, i am 7 years into Java, 5+ years of that has been j2ee, but i recently changed jobs for a (primarily) Swing role -- this one is more lucrative
granted, bigger bucks are out there in J2EE architecting and i've learned my fair share in that arena, much of it applies to distributed architecture in general, principles that are a must in today's technology
but, i am biding my time looking for the next great distributed platform
j2ee is too convoluted and there are too few (architectural) standards for sustained manageable growth, what a jumbled mess
unfortunately for someone entering the workforce the j2ee buzzwords are important to employers
> Thanks guys for the excellent response. For me i
> really love swing but recently i have been hunting
> jobs and this is what i get j2ee freakin everywhere.
> May be in the future college can offer 1 course on
> jsp, servlets and can combine intro and data
> structures in one class. Excuse my language.
>
Without knowing core Java learning servlets and JSP makes no sense.
And given the questions in JSP forums from kids taking classes where it is taught I won't hold my breath over the quality of programmers that educational institutions turn out.
The vast majority thinks scriptlets are the best thing since sliced bread and never even heard about JSTL.
Seems like their curiculums are almost a decade out of date...
> A recent graduate should know about j2ee?
that assumes colleges want to (and can) keep up with the latest technological fad
although j2ee is more than a fad, paving the road for a lot of ingenuity, unless Sun, Microsoft, Oracle, or the like found a university, colleges should not teach particular vendor technologies and should continue to teach perennial principles
there are many certifications out there that can be conquered by reading a book but nothing is more important than the resume bullet
* XX degree in TechnologyField, FooU
without it you won't get an interview
> Then college needs to offer courses in jsp, struts, ejb
> and etc..
be careful what you wish for -- had my college taught so narrowly i might have very well been a VisualC++ lifer
