Since the inception of computer science, programming languages have come and gone at varying paces. Over the past ten years, Java has become one of the most popular programming languages on earth, but this trend will inexorably decline and eventually fade out sometimes. Quoting the author, "It's definitely not a question of if but when". Worded differently, all programming languages are born equal and make no exceptions as far as the theory of evolution is concerned.
In "Beyond Java", the message the author seeks to convey is not that Java is bad, too limited or that it will disappear next year. Instead, by dissecting a couple of established facts under his microscope, the author clearly shows that Java's reign will eventually end even though the language is still on the rise today. It's worth mentioning that this book is definitely not the result of some cheap crystal gazing exercise as the author bases his predictions and forecasts on his concrete real-world experience and on input gathered from the most famous Java gurus on the planet (Richard Monson-Haefel, Jason Hunter, James Duncan Davidson, to name a few). Aiming at a constructive attitude, the author enumerates and explains the characteristics and the features that the next leading programming language should provide according to him.
On a more concrete level, the author points out the major shortcomings of Java (static typing, general purpose semantics, etc.) that will very likely contribute to make the language become a second choice in face of its more dynamic competitors, such as Ruby. Using the later as a reference, the author explains how he managed to attain an unprecedented level of productivity when migrating a database-backed web application written in Java to the Ruby on Rails framework.
If you firmly believe that everything has a begin and an end, then you should give this book a try as it provides a good deal of useful information and much appreciated hints that will let you prepare yourself to the inexorable transition from Java to THE next language.
More reviews on Val's blog (http://radio.javaranch.com/val)
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