Moving career from PHP to JAVA

[Other Pineapple Smurf]

So I've been a PHP developer for the last 7 years and decided that its time to move on. Going into Java as I feel its field that offers better employment prospects for what I enjoy doing.

My frustration with PHP is the shear lack of experienced developers in the industry. As a result, a senior developer is often tasked with doing work that would under normal circumstances be delegated to more knowledgeable junior staff.

The other problem is the assumption that just because I'm a PHP developer, I will fix your website: I don't pretty and I'm a terrible web designer


I also believe a developer should never be limited to one language and am already (semi) skilled in Python and C++. I don't count my Delphi, Pascal or QBasic/gwBasic as experience.


Another developers doing a major career change in the new year?

 

[koeksGHT]

Well i'm moving into PHP so where is there a position open

Eventually I will prob also end up doing JAVA as I want to do some courses to expand my general Java knowledge and market seems quite nice there

 

[Other Pineapple Smurf]

Well i'm moving into PHP so where is there a position open

Eventually I will prob also end up doing JAVA as I want to do some courses to expand my general Java knowledge and market seems quite nice there

Its a good time to move into PHP as the language has grown up a lot so dont be put off, its just time for me to move on.

Look at the Laravel framework, its where the industry is moving. Codeignitor is also good to get behind your name.

 

[koeksGHT]

Its a good time to move into PHP as the language has grown up a lot so dont be put off, its just time for me to move on.

Look at the Laravel framework, its where the industry is moving. Codeignitor is also good to get behind your name.

Hmm, I learn't from scratch so never really found need to use a framework but they seems handy if needed, Laravel seems very nice. Prefer building from scratch tho

 

[Other Pineapple Smurf]

Hmm, I learn't from scratch so never really found need to use a framework but they seems handy if needed, Laravel seems very nice. Prefer building from scratch tho

Its important to know how to code without a framework, but rebuilding the (square) wheel each time is not a good idea.

Personally I would never take a PHP company seriously who is not using a framework. I got my fingers burnt with my previous employer where everything was written from the ground up each time. I ended up working many many late nights trying to get even the most basic website out.

I switched them to codeignitor and built a CMS system in one week compare to the 14 months the other developer spent on their own custom system that was not even a working prototype.

Also in interviews it I always ask what frameworks developers have worked on.

 

[koeksGHT]

Its important to know how to code without a framework, but rebuilding the (square) wheel each time is not a good idea.

Personally I would never take a PHP company seriously who is not using a framework. I got my fingers burnt with my previous employer where everything was written from the ground up each time. I ended up working many many late nights trying to get even the most basic website out.

I switched them to codeignitor and built a CMS system in one week compare to the 14 months the other developer spent on their own custom system that was not even a working prototype.

Also in interviews it I always ask what frameworks developers have worked on.

It handles the basics but more of the time it is out of box thinking

I don't know how terrible they were but it's really not that difficult lol

I'm dealing with a site built in CakePHP and I hate it, so overly complex for what it is.

 

[Other Pineapple Smurf]

.... CakePHP .... hate ...

The two words you always find in one sentence

 

[Gnome]

My company allows us to use whatever language we want, except PHP we are strictly prohibited from using it. I'm not that draconian but I must say I don't find PHP to be the best around, no offense to you PHP guys.

Java really does have very good employment prospects and great frameworks (ie. Spring Framework).

That said, thus far Ruby is my favorite language (just the language itself, not counting frameworks and libraries).

Just about every large IT company uses Java so I don't think you'll be looking back. Although the language can be very verbose. It does make it incredible easy to read however.

 

[Other Pineapple Smurf]

My company allows us to use whatever language we want, except PHP we are strictly prohibited from using it. I'm not that draconian but I must say I don't find PHP to be the best around, no offense to you PHP guys.

Java really does have very good employment prospects and great frameworks (ie. Spring Framework).

That said, thus far Ruby is my favorite language (just the language itself, not counting frameworks and libraries).

Just about every large IT company uses Java so I don't think you'll be looking back. Although the language can be very verbose. It does make it incredible easy to read however.

See, you would understand my reasoning for moving out of PHP

I've thought about Ruby but we don't use it in our company.

 

[semaphore]

I would never move to PHP, did it many years ago and hated every second of it.

Ruby is great there are however a few pitfalls with performance and garbage collection, but that can be falcon patched, or you can use a different run time such as JRuby.

My current trending list is java(scala), ruby, javascript, C#

 

[Other Pineapple Smurf]

I would never move to PHP, did it many years ago and hated every second of it.

Ruby is great there are however a few pitfalls with performance and garbage collection, but that can be falcon patched, or you can use a different run time such as JRuby.

My current trending list is java(scala), ruby, javascript, C#

My only bug up my butt with Ruby is the community, they are so stuck up and really do not like outsiders.

 

[semaphore]

My only bug up my butt with Ruby is the community, they are so stuck up and really do not like outsiders.

Odd I've never had that problem with them, the total opposite actually.

 

[Gnome]

See, you would understand my reasoning for moving out of PHP

Good move imo.

I've thought about Ruby but we don't use it in our company.

I didn't HAVE to use it, but it is used in our company quite a bit. So I took the plunge and decided to do a project in Ruby.

Company is the kind of place where you can know nothing of a language and decide to do your project in that language (eg. skill up on the language while working on a project).

Ruby is great there are however a few pitfalls with performance and garbage collection

Well I started with Java and I have quite a lot of Java experience.

At this point I use Ruby when I want to get something done quickly and I know I don't need multi-threading.

I see it as a trade-off. If I want developer productivity, I build it in Ruby. Then if it gets to the point that I need the performance I port it to Java or Scala in which I'm comfortable building massive applications.

Also I just use VIM and Notepad++ for my Ruby development, so if I know the code base will be large I'd rather avoid Ruby for lack of IDE.

Something like Eclipse (eg. Java) can mean better overall productivity in a large project IMO.

My only bug up my butt with Ruby is the community, they are so stuck up and really do not like outsiders.

Hmm, well I haven't interacted with "community" much tbh.

I just used the standard Ruby docs and Google to figure out what to do. Now and then I pick up some neat little tidbit looking at someone else's code (in one of our company projects) or on Stackoverflow.

That said, I found it a bit frustrating starting out because many things are very poorly explained. But that is to be expected with such a language I guess (was the same with Java when I began really, wasn't clear where to start)

 

[koeksGHT]

My company allows us to use whatever language we want, except PHP we are strictly prohibited from using it. I'm not that draconian but I must say I don't find PHP to be the best around, no offense to you PHP guys.

Java really does have very good employment prospects and great frameworks (ie. Spring Framework).

That said, thus far Ruby is my favorite language (just the language itself, not counting frameworks and libraries).

Just about every large IT company uses Java so I don't think you'll be looking back. Although the language can be very verbose. It does make it incredible easy to read however.

PHP is free, easy to use and effective somewhat, it's a great stepping stone to the world of programming IMO. I learn't Java at school and looking at PHP code was like wtf simple.. Setup WAMP and had my first script up in 20 minutes on a VPS (the first few lines of ParcelCheck lol to mail me whenever status changed)

I do wish to get back into Java again as I had some fun at school and making simple apps to phish users details LOL, XP login dialog FTW!

 

[semaphore]

Good move imo.


I didn't HAVE to use it, but it is used in our company quite a bit. So I took the plunge and decided to do a project in Ruby.

Company is the kind of place where you can know nothing of a language and decide to do your project in that language (eg. skill up on the language while working on a project).


Well I started with Java and I have quite a lot of Java experience.

At this point I use Ruby when I want to get something done quickly and I know I don't need multi-threading.

I see it as a trade-off. If I want developer productivity, I build it in Ruby. Then if it gets to the point that I need the performance I port it to Java or Scala in which I'm comfortable building massive applications.

Also I just use VIM and Notepad++ for my Ruby development, so if I know the code base will be large I'd rather avoid Ruby for lack of IDE.

Something like Eclipse (eg. Java) can mean better overall productivity in a large project IMO.


Hmm, well I haven't interacted with "community" much tbh.

I just used the standard Ruby docs and Google to figure out what to do. Now and then I pick up some neat little tidbit looking at someone else's code (in one of our company projects) or on Stackoverflow.

That said, I found it a bit frustrating starting out because many things are very poorly explained. But that is to be expected with such a language I guess (was the same with Java when I began really, wasn't clear where to start)

Sublime Text can be easily setup for Ruby. Or even rubymine is another option. But yeah i use ruby mine with packages.