Yesterday I was talking with my long-time podcasting buddy and friend, Charles, about putting together some high level “marketing” for some of the ideas his company has come up with around using Java and JavaScript together. More broadly, using Java and dynamic languages.
Using Java and JavaScript Together
They’ve been using Java along with dynamic languages for awhile now, and they’ve come up with some nice ways of using the two from things like, to use my own phrases, “imperative configuration” (compared to declarative with XML) to “distributed closures” (whao! does that phrase even make sense?).
I’ve been encouraging him to submit a few session and BoF proposals to JavaOne along the lines of “Using Java and JavaScript.” As we all know, Java SE 6.0 is going to ship with Rhino (JavaScript) and there’s plenty of other dynamic language thinking in the Java world at the moment. Not only as long-time projects like JRuby, Groovy, and Jython, but in the JCP. That is, from all of the activity in the public, it’s all but been officially announced that dynamic languages are to be a first class citizen in Java-land.
What Do We Do With This?
The context, then, is that JavaScript will be ready for use once Java SE 6.0 comes out. This means the Java community will hungrily be asking, “well, what do I do with those two together?”
People like Charles & Co. who’ve been using Java and JavaScript together, commercially, for some time so they have something to offer in answer to that question. Hopefully we can get them hooked up with a session or at least a BoF. Of course, I’m sure a book published sometime in the late winter or spring would be timed well too.
More Examples?
Along those lines, I’m curious what other people have been doing with Java and dynamic languages in production systems. I know there’s plenty of technology on out there, like Phobos, but I’m also interested in what people are shipping. I’ll try to put together a list for the public stories I get.
Any one have examples?
Disclaimer: Sun is a client.
Tags: javascript, javaone, dynamiclanguages
you mean like Zimbra?
For whatever it's worth, we use java and dynamic languages (javascript and groovy) for both applications we ship, and they play a critical role.
Being able to execute dynamic language scripts from the java code in the same VM, provides maximum flexibility in the field. Functionality of the products can be easily tweaked to meet the requirements of each customer without requiring use of complicated configuration files (that become a language of their own) or proprietary languages.
We are able to handle the infrastructure (the muck) in java, taking advantage of all the benefits of mature language and development environment and let the business logic be expressed in a dynamic language.
As I see it, being able to use the dynamic languages along with java within a JVM brings us best of both worlds, and is crucial for our needs.
James: I'm not sure if Zimbra uses them in the way I'm thinking, primarly running JavaScript on the server side. Now, that said, using it on the client side really is part of it as well.
Berkay: that's exactly the sort of thing I'm talking about. I'll look into it further if possible. Would you be available to record a podcast about that? It'd be great to get Charles and you on the line together to compare notes.
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