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Getting Started with Java/JVM

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  • Getting Started with Java/JVM

    Hey guys,
    My company is WAY behind with the times. To be honest we are still programming out of the 80's haha.
    Everyone in my department understands how Java would change the game for us, but with limited staff there is no time to learn as a group.
    I've done some Googling on the matter, and there is a plethora of info out there.
    Does anyone have any good sources/material that could help me learn this from the ground up?
    I'm not asking about learning the Java language, just how to integrate it within the 400.
    Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

    Thanks

  • #2
    You mean things like this:


    I have to ask, are you sure Java is where you want to go? IBM was pushing Java hard 20 years ago, but now Java is almost considered legacy. The direction now favors things like PHP, Python, and Node.

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    • #3
      The .Net/PHP side of things look a lot brighter I will agree.
      Java is just something I(personally) wanted to dabble with to give us more functionality.
      Everything dealing with web applications I can find require costly software.
      I am very uneducated about these type of things. The majority of our department is stuck in their comfort zones back in RPG III haha

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      • #4
        Fair enough. Java integrates tightly with modern RPG, so it works well for augmenting your existing programs.

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        • #5
          Yeah, I agree with jtaylor -- it makes little sense to learn Java today. For IBM i, it really only caught on amongst big enterprises. Java never worked out that well for smaller shops. No idea why someone would want to begin learning Java today.

          If you do, there really isn't a lot to learn that's specific to IBM i.

          Right now, Node.js is the big one that everyone's learning. (5 years ago it was PHP. 20 years ago it was Java.) Python is the second most popular to learn right now.

          You mention web... to be clear, you can code web applications in ANY language. There's nothing about Java, PHP, Node or Python that makes them any better for web than RPG is. The only reason web is more popular on these platforms is that its VERY hard to teach RPGers web programming because it's hard to teach old dogs new tricks. Companies have found they can save time/money by simply hiring people who are already familiar with web, and these tend to be younger people who grew up with languages like Java, PHP and Node. So they go ahead and use those.

          If you're looking to retrain your own staff, feel free to teach them web in RPG. No, this does not require purchasing anything, you can code for free with IBM APIs, or save yourself a lot of time/effort by downloading a free toolkit like CGIDEV2.

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          • #6
            If you intend on using Java to access resources on the IBM i, then at some point you'll need to look into The IBM Toolbox for Java (JT400).




            FWIW I've done a fair bit of integration with Java and RPG, but have started playing around with Node.js too.

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