Erik Hatcher wrote:
Didn't you get the memo of Struts being @deprecated?! :)
Tell that to all the employers out there looking for people with Struts experience!
This is a tough topic to address. There is no question that employers seek Struts experience. My (quite serious) reply to that is "would you like fries with that?". I am a developer for one primary reason, because I love it. Knowing what I know of the major Java web frameworks out there, I would not enjoy being forced to build something with Struts when I know quite well that Tapestry is a superior solution.
I did my share of Struts, and in the original environment where I learned it and incorporated it, it was a much nicer way to go than the previous nasty all-JSP (even to serve up binary content!) architecture. So it was an incremental, yet fairly dramatic, improvement. Tapestry, had it been a viable solution at the time, would have amazed management at the streamlined development process it facilitates.
Yes, I work in the ivory tower of an academic institution where I have the luxury of building solutions practically anyway I choose. I'm idealistic and believe that management should make management decisions and technologist should make technology decisions. And yes, there are times when the two must agree and speak each others languages. I can demonstrate effectively that there is no web application too small or too large where Struts has an advantage over Tapestry. In management-speak, you can simply build web applications cleaner, faster, with more reuse and cheaper to build _and_ to maintain in Tapestry.
Not to defend Struts or anything.. I haven't used any of the competing frameworks... but it seems clear to me that Struts is still a good bullet point to have on the ole resume.
And on this point I concur. Learn Struts. Learn Tapestry. Know how to compare/contrast them. You will then be equipped with the skills to convince the powers-that-be that going to Tapestry is the way to go and that you have an incremental, cost-effective strategy for migrating from Struts to Tapestry.
Is throwing away Struts and converting to Tapestry pragmatic? It depends. If a legacy Struts application is working fine, don't "fix" it by introducing Tapestry. However, new functionality can be implemented in Tapestry leaving the existing Struts pieces intact until they need refactoring.
That said, it also seems clear that it's time for proactive developers to start at least trying to learn JSF or Tapestry or <<insert alternative here>>.
Hence the stack of JSF books sitting beside my desk... :-)
Sure, learn JSF too. But, also heed the advice of those who you trust that have been there and done that. Tapestry is leaps and bounds ahead of both Struts and JSF.
Is Tapestry the only player in town? Nah.... if you've got to build a pure CRUD (what an acronym!) application - consider using Ruby on Rails. Java isn't even the only game in town, and Rails has proven itself as one of the fastest and most elegant ways to build CRUD applications these days.
Re: proactive developers - you can either be one, or lose your ability to compete with the rest of us that are. Take your pick. Do not stagnate.
Erik
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