Chocolate or Vanilla? That's the question I posed to 24 kindergartens last week as I passed out holiday cupcakes to my sons class. For the record; 14 chocolates, 10 vanillas. Now a statistician would tell you with much bravado that clearly chocolate is superior to vanilla by a commanding 16.7%. A chocolate connoisseur might latch on to that statistician's conclusions and add a few choice words such as rich, delicious, moist, or dark to his commentary and be very convincing to the unbiased observer. But the real truth is that the correct answer to this question is purely a function of the person. Some folks just like chocolate more. No further analysis required. The question that I pose is this. Can we say the same for development platforms?
What would be the results if I asked 24 software developers, at random, whether they prefer .Net or Java. Clearly this question must be more than just a matter of choice. Clearly there must be some level of superiority here. Be it in inherent capabilities, tools, or hardware. Based on all the "statistics" I have seen over the years, I would guess that the answer to my question would yield a near even count for both platforms. Could it be that the choice of development platform for a new software project be as arbitrary to its success as choosing a chocolate cupcake over vanilla? Don't bet the farm.
Barring any technical prerequisites that would preclude one or the other (yes, they do exist), I stand by my prediction of results. Why is it then that about half of the professional development world writes in Java and the other half .Net? I think it's because both platforms are viable for most software solutions. The differentiator, just like the cupcakes, is in the people. The investment it takes to become really good in a particular development platform is great. And with technology, personal bias is all about knowledge of a given platform, or lack of knowledge of the alternatives. And when you look at a developer's career, they are never more eager to sponge up technology details than in the beginning. So it is with very few exceptions that a developer doesn't answer my question based on their developer roots. What platform were their first projects on? In a previous life, I worked a little in industrial automation and that world has their technology players as well. Multiple vendor platforms with specific strengths and weaknesses, but overall pretty equal. Engineers in that world have their preferences too. Modicon, Allen Bradley, Siemens. Their personal preference can almost always be mapped back to their first project.
For the record, I am a .Net guy. I am a .Net guy because I "grew up" using Microsoft development tools. C++, VB 4-5-6, Asp, Interdev, VS200x. Yes I have also written java code, but very little. Could I architect a good Java solution? I know I could. I know I could because I am a good developer. Classes are classes, patterns are patterns, and languages are just syntax, blah blah blah. Besides, I love the curly brace {J}. But I also know that I could build a far superior .Net solution in less time. And it not because I think .Net is far superior to Java. With .Net, I can just do. With Java, I'll know what I want to do, and then have to look up how to do it.
So what difference does all this make? Make your platform decisions based on your people, or your people decisions based on your platform and your software projects stand a much greater chance of being successful. And if this stumps you, find a 5 year old and offer him a cupcake to explain it.
Brian