Oracle Java SE vs. pdfRest — PDF API Service

Oracle Java SE is well suited to long-running applications (e.g. servers). Java Swing (UI toolkit) is now rather outdated, lacking support for modern UI features. JavaFX, the potential replacement for Swing, has now been separated out of Java core. Ideally, there would be a path to migrate a large application incrementally from Swing to JavaFX, but due to different threading models and other aspects, it is difficult. At this point, it is probably better to use an embedded web browser (e.g. JxBrowser) to provide a modern UI in HTML/Javascript and keep just the business logic in Java.

Incentivized

• Since Java runs on a virtual machine, it's generally considered to be agnostic of the hardware it's running on. It allows for deployment across a mix of hardware setups with the same binary.
• Lots of literature, third party libraries, support forums, and books have been devoted to Java in general, making it a great language to use to support the business.
• Backwards compatibility has been an important strength of Java for us. Legacy code that isn't ready to be retired yet can still run on our newer setups despite using older versions of OJSE.

Incentivized

• I would like to see more standardization on the convention level of good code practices in Java that could be promoted by Oracle
• I would like to see a little more investment into JavaFX as with Graal VM there is a big potential
• I would like to see more WebAssambly/WASM related features

The language is fluent and has good support from a number of open source and commercial IDEs. Language features are added every 6 months, although long-term service releases are only available every 3 years. It would be nice if some of the older APIs were depreciated with more pressure to move to the new replacement APIs (e.g. File vs. Path), but transitions to new features are generally well implemented.

Incentivized

Java is such a mature product at this point that there is little support from the vendor that is needed. Various sources on the internet, and especially StackOverflow, provide a wealth of knowledge and advice. Areas that may benefit from support is when dealing with complex multithreading issues and security libraries.

Incentivized

We choose Java as our system has multiple sub-applications that have different purposes and architecture including back-end applications, front-end UI, front-end Rest API, and Selenium Automation tests. They are deployed in Windows and Linux, communicate with each other using Rest API, RMI and Queue Message and need to support different deployment environment from Dev, Test, UAT to Production so using Java allows us to have a common standard from development, build and deployment for all applications.

Incentivized

• We didn't need to spend more time and resources on developing apps for each OS. Our Java application worked perfectly on Linux, Mac, and Windows.
• Our customers aren't fully satisfied with the performance of our application, specifically load up times.
• We didn't need to purchase training courses for our software developers. Each of them were already well-versed in using Java SE.

Incentivized