DZone
Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile
  • Manage Email Subscriptions
  • How to Post to DZone
  • Article Submission Guidelines
Sign Out View Profile
  • Post an Article
  • Manage My Drafts
Over 2 million developers have joined DZone.
Log In / Join
Refcards Trend Reports Events Over 2 million developers have joined DZone. Join Today! Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile Manage Email Subscriptions Moderation Admin Console How to Post to DZone Article Submission Guidelines
View Profile
Sign Out
Refcards
Trend Reports
Events
Zones
Culture and Methodologies Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks
Partner Zones AWS Cloud
by AWS Developer Relations
Culture and Methodologies
Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering
AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture
Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding
Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance
Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks
Partner Zones
AWS Cloud
by AWS Developer Relations
Securing Your Software Supply Chain with JFrog and Azure
Register Today

Trending

  • Effective Java Collection Framework: Best Practices and Tips
  • Avoiding Pitfalls With Java Optional: Common Mistakes and How To Fix Them [Video]
  • Writing a Vector Database in a Week in Rust
  • How To Approach Java, Databases, and SQL [Video]

Trending

  • Effective Java Collection Framework: Best Practices and Tips
  • Avoiding Pitfalls With Java Optional: Common Mistakes and How To Fix Them [Video]
  • Writing a Vector Database in a Week in Rust
  • How To Approach Java, Databases, and SQL [Video]

On Religious Wars and Technology

Lieven Doclo user avatar by
Lieven Doclo
·
Jul. 30, 13 · Interview
Like (0)
Save
Tweet
Share
1.68K Views

Join the DZone community and get the full member experience.

Join For Free

Recently, one of my earlier blog posts got published on Javalobby. The reactions I got were slightly different than the ones I got when I first wrote the article. For one, Gradle wasn’t really in the picture yet (and certainly not as popular yet) and Ant still had a lot of very zealous followers.

It seems like some people didn’t understand the underlying message of the post. It really wasn’t about which one of the two choices was the best one, it was about the fact that people need to stop ranting about competing technologies. It’s been a shift for me too, I’ll admit that. I’ve been a very zealous believer in Spring and thus by nature I didn’t like anything about Java EE and its containers. I was just as convinced as most Maven protesters were back in the day.

One lesson I learned: fear and aversion are caused by sheer ignorance. When you gain knowledge on a competing framework, fear can turn in two directions. The first one is the path of acceptance. This is the most common one, by the way, as this direction expands your horizon. It allows you to add a new possible route to your professional path and above all allows you to have more alternatives.

The second path is that of fact-based resistance. Understanding a technology allows your to jump into a technology debate as the antagonist and still be able to stand your ground. Success in technological debates (or religious wars) not only depend on you knowing the strong points of your preferred technology, it also depends on being able to recognize the strong points of the competing technology and your ability to provide an alternative.

Instead of writing another rant, I’d much more prefer people to write about the strong points of a competing technology and how their technology provides an equally strong alternative. Writing (or ranting) about the perceived weaknesses of a framework or tool is a negative downwards spiral that is of no use to nobody.

We don’t have the answer on which technology is the best. Nobody has. At best, we can only provide a subjective choice based on our past experiences. Pretending we are objective,competent professionals is just misleading. Any benchmark or comparison is heavily context dependent and is as such an subbjective opinion.

Luckily, the current trend is changing towards acceptance and co-existence. I have high hopes.

Published at DZone with permission of Lieven Doclo, DZone MVB. See the original article here.

Opinions expressed by DZone contributors are their own.

Trending

  • Effective Java Collection Framework: Best Practices and Tips
  • Avoiding Pitfalls With Java Optional: Common Mistakes and How To Fix Them [Video]
  • Writing a Vector Database in a Week in Rust
  • How To Approach Java, Databases, and SQL [Video]

Comments

Partner Resources

X

ABOUT US

  • About DZone
  • Send feedback
  • Careers
  • Sitemap

ADVERTISE

  • Advertise with DZone

CONTRIBUTE ON DZONE

  • Article Submission Guidelines
  • Become a Contributor
  • Visit the Writers' Zone

LEGAL

  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy

CONTACT US

  • 600 Park Offices Drive
  • Suite 300
  • Durham, NC 27709
  • support@dzone.com

Let's be friends: