The World of Java

I didn't have a lot of spare time today. Only a few minutes here and there. Instead of pursuing either the C og Java language, I had a look at the world of Java.

Actually, I tried to find a map that gave an overview of the Java userland - common tools, libraries, IDEs and such. But I couldn't find any.

Application servers

I had heard of GlassFish and JBoss and didn't know what they were. Seems they're environments running on servers and that they handle a lot of services for applications. Security, load balancing and such. Strictly server side applications, I think. They're not meant for client side/desktop applications.

There are other applications servers for Java applications: Oracle owns both GlassFish (from Sun) and WebLogic. IBM has WebSphere. JBoss is owned by RedHat - and fits seamlessly with OpenShift. More are mentioned on Wikipedia, but by companies I haven't heard of.

Maven and Ant - Automation in Java world

Maven was a second name I was wondering about. It is, as it turns out, a build automation tool - somethink like make, I guess. A build automation tool automates the day to day tasks of developers.

Mr J. Bean 

I also made a half assed attempt at understanding JavaBeans. There seems to be two types: standard and enterprise. The first kind is a sort of packaged super object. An object containing other objects and following certain conventions. Basically it's some sort of reusable, standarized, objectified library stuff.