Java has some advantages when you program in the large; when you’re doing a simple database-driven program, you’d likely use Ruby on Rails for example, not Java, unless your goal was a desktop application (and there are some security and infrastructure dependency reasons to build desktop software).

Java also has a mature set of development tools which I think are superior still to those for web development (finding memory issues in JavaScript is hard, not to mention the fact that JavaScript is a single threaded, blocking language, unlike Java).

And of course Java lets you build server applications which then have lighter weight front end clients (which can then be web or desktop-based). Java is keen for reusable backend components that you want to use from multiple front-end “applications.”

Have fun! – Bob

I think that we’re actually creating stand-alone applications, thankfully. What do you usually do with Java? What do you think the best application of the language are?

Using Java applets to do this kind of thing is overkill, seriously. If you are going to use Java there are tons of different ways to do this that are all better than Java applets. But I’m with you, doing this kind of thing, on the web, shouldn’t be done this way.