if java..

[jilted]

if java is so great, then how come i can't find that many sites that uses java.

The one notable game site i found was games.yahoo.com but the others are mostly flash.


I also don't see that many sites that uses jsp!!


I'm not saying java sucks or anything but I already started learning java and I can't help thinking that I'm learning an obsolete technology or soon to be obsolete.

I mean, how come there are not that many sites that uses applets anymore?

[mlk]

Cos applets are normally rubish, and any idiot can make a flash "game" (not to put down anyone who can make a good game in flash), while using java requires a litte more work.

I've seen some quite big sites using JSPs.

[kevglass]

Java applets are seen as a bit bulky and generally are only used for _real_ applications on the web as opposed to light weight stuff like simple games. If you were to write a web based MMORPG I'd expect you to use Java since most other technologies wouldn't scale up well.

JSP is one of the top 3 web enabling services. (according to some article somewhere, I suspect the other 2 would have been ASP and PHP)

However, the main point is Java is used for server side and desktop development now. When Java orignally came out it was marketed (wrongly?) as an applet writing language. Since then, with the development of EJB and a whole series of supporting APIs its been realised that what Java is really good for is reliable, maintainable enterprise applications.

Again, where games are concerned, its possibly not the best for small simple games (although development in Java is very quick), but if you're talking real scale development then Java gives you many benefits in robustness and expandability.

Apologies for the long post, but all this said, if all you want to write, is (silly imo) little web games, you probably should just learn flash. However, if you do, you're learning into something with limited possibilities.

Kev

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[Breakfast]

What puts flash ahead for most people is that it doesn't need much learning at all.

But anyone who has tried to use it for anything more technical will know just how utterly repulsive actionscript is for anything but the most trivial tasks. As I am about to go and remind myself. Hooray.