#+SETUPFILE: ../../../template/level-2.org
#+TITLE: Should I Learn Java?
#+DATE: <2018-07-14 Sat 02:49>
#+AUTHOR: vaeringjar
#+EMAIL: vaeringjar@land
#+DESCRIPTION: Should a person learn Java? I think learning Grails framework will teach a person more.
#+KEYWORDS: learning


* Post

I originally posted this at [[https://freepo.st/post/wh1btkh1qf#comment-2bwk7o8a22][freepo.st]].

Personally, I would skip Java... Last month I helped a student learn
Grails in a day or two and this gave me a good perspective of what new
programmers have yet to learn and what kinds of tasks work well to
bring them up to speed.

Using Grails will force you to understand MVC design and JVM
basics. In it, you'll mostly use HTML/(s)css/js for the front end with
a choice of either GSP elements or in-line Groovy, Groovy (or you can
even mostly type actual Java 99% of the time) for the controllers and
domains, yaml or gradle's yaml-ish for configs, and in the ORM you can
pick from using Groovy, HQL, or actual SQL for the database layer. You
can literally do everything from the command line if you use sdkman
and then the grails CLI. Emacs also has groovy and grails modes.

Personally, I don't recommend using a JVM. I really really really
really.... /breathe/ really don't like the JVM. But learning how to
use Grails can give you a diverse exposure set very quickly. Probably
more than just learning Java.
