The Google App Engine service currently supports Python as its only runtime language. In its official Google groups, people have been asking what?s going to be the next runtime. A question for curious minds, a point for the Google lovers to ponder. I have been using the App Engine (http://masnun.appspot.com) lately and found the service really cool. They make us all feel like being Google engineers by letting us build web apps on the same infrastructure they themselves use. That means your web app will use the same legendary (!?!) Bigtable and GFS that is used by google. But at the moment you have to build the app in Python. I have been interested in Python for a long time but never had the time to check it out. Now with App Engine, I am learning python at last. But I would prefer Java to Python. I am a BBA student and I cannot dedicate much time to programming. I want to emphasize on a single language for all my needs:
# building web sites
# building desktop app (cross platform)
# building command line apps
# building mobile phone softwares and games
I admit that Python could be used for all these needs. But Java feels cooler to me. Especially the Swing bit of thing. The desktop apps built in Java are easily portable and looks great on all OS. Java definitely has great portable libraries more in number than Python. The only thing I would miss in Java is the scripting ability. But for that I would always have Python and PHP at my disposal. But I am really looking forward to learning how to build web sites in Java. It?s really a pain to find a reliable free Java host. So I would very much want Java to become the next runtime environment for GAE so that I can try it free. I have enjoyed building sites with GAE using python. I do believe that the Java experience would be cool too.
Like many people out there, I have been wondering what languages will come to GAE. Here?s my bet:
1. Java
2. C++
3. Ruby
4. PHP (If it really comes).
Note that Java, C++ and Python are the three official languages at Google. Now that they have already introduced Python, they will roll out the other languages in the project too. In that case, Java should get higher priority because Java is more popular and common than C++. Its OO nature is probably more matured than CPP. But I won?t mind if they introduce C++ first.
It would be of course nice if they introduce PHP too, but the controversy about PHP?s scalability and coding style can be a point to consider.
Categories