Upgrading to a next-generation Java development tool may not be the simple change it's reputed to be By Polly Sprenger ime on the Web is accelerated, and change happens fast in a new programming environment. Combine these factors and you begin to see the Java applications developer's predicament.
All programmers invest time, money, and thought in choosing their mainstay development tools.
But the state of Java technology is advancing so rapidly that developers working in it are sometimes forced to migrate from one tool to another to take advantage of new features. The impetus to upgrade might be a mandate from management or a developer's decision to take advantage of new capabilities. A new release from one vendor that offers hot new features today might be surpassed by another vendor's tool tomorrow, which in turn could be surpassed by the first vendor's upgrade a few months later. Both general and Java-specific considerations should go into migrating to a new development tool, according to Fred Domke, senior technical analyst at Washington University in St. Louis, who teaches an Internet computing workshop. Overall, he recommends evaluating any tool on the basis of performance, scalability, and third-party component integration.