Ok so I'm still working on the grails comp but I've begun to get excited about the next project.. a football tipping site. I know there are heaps of them around the web all ready but I want to make my own with the features that my friends and family want. I think it will be an excellent learning vehicle. And that brings me to my dilemma... what do I use to build it?
Grails is very exciting and produces results fast but I'm a java developer by day and really could use the extra experience developing with Spring and Hibernate. I feel like I'm missing out because at work we use Java 1.4 and therefore I haven't used annotations, enums or any of the new post 1.4 goodness. This might be a good opportunity.
On the other hand, should I give Ruby a go? I've messed with Python before and enjoyed it but haven't touched Django or TurboGears. Dynamic or static language? Which offers the best learning experience? My goal here is to learn and develop my overall programming skills. I have no time limit although before next footy season starts would be good (March 2010).
Do I continue with Grails to cement what I've learned all ready? What would you do? Continue with Grails, go back to Java or try something new? I'm interested in any and all opinions.
3 comments:
Hi Dean,
I don't know what your real experience is with Grails (and Java), but if you've never build something 'real' in Grails yet, I would say: put your knowledge to the test. Let's see what kinds of challenges you run into.
Learning a new framework (be it Ruby or something in Java) might be great too, but I think it' brings more value to use your Grails knowledge. That way you can say: Grails? Ofcourse I've built something in Grails. It was X (fill in: terrible/quite easy/quite nice/great!)
And if you're going to build a webapplication, do you really want to go back to Java? I thought you wouldn't :)
1.4?! Wow... come on, it's 2009. The Java 7 is around the corning. 1.4 almost reach the end of life.
Anyway, I'd personally recommend staying with Grails all the way. And don't be 'discouraged' by the 'lack of power of Hibernate, Spring and co.' They are available in the 'raw' form in Grails should you have a need to use 'em directly.
Thanks Erik and Dmitriy I appreciate your encouragement. I'll be sure to post my progress when I get started.
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