Sources of information on Java

Do you have trouble finding well-informed writing about Java in Czech? I ask because
Tomáš Kouba’s post
Czech Resources on C# and .NET got me thinking.
I see a parallel between C# and Java. Neither has much information available
in Czech. I thought C# would be better off as part of .NET,
and that there’d be at least one Czech site devoted to .NET. I was rather surprised by the conclusion
Tomáš reached.

Interestingly, compared with Java, the quality and above all the frequency of sources on .NET and C# are much worse. Maybe people who earn a living with Microsoft technology have less time. Either developing for Microsoft is more demanding than developing for Java, or they’re more commercially minded in general. Writing posts and articles takes a good deal of enthusiasm, and perhaps Microsoft fans don’t have it. We all have our priorities, and there’s nothing wrong with money.

I can only judge Java from experience, but if Java is doing better, it’s like
the one-eyed man among the blind. Of course, you could argue that there’s plenty of material in English,
but for beginners it’s easier to learn the basics in their native language. On the other hand,
the growing popularity of Java on mobile devices has given rise to several interesting J2ME resources.

Of the specialist sites,
Interval deserves the most credit. It runs
interesting articles, especially those by Marek Branický. There are hardly any Czech Java blogs, or
people don’t know about them. Both platforms are poorly represented there.

I don’t know why there are so many blogs about building websites and
hardly any specialist ones on Java and .NET. I don’t believe writing about SEO, accessibility or web design is
easier than writing about security or programming techniques. I know of no magic spell
to help, but I hope some people will put themselves out there.

Added April 30, 2004 — (April 29, 2004, blog.vyvojar.cz) Radio Yerevan?

Added April 29, 2004 — I happened upon Jindřich Zelený’s site (Department of Information Technologies, University of Economics), with a large collection of seminar papers on Java. The topics are genuinely interesting. J2EE, JSF, Log4j, JDO, Cocoon, Ant, XDoclet and more.