Last week I posted why JavaScript is more critical a skill to learn than Java. There was an outpouring of comments, discussion and responses unlike any I have seen in a while.
To give a little more background as to why I decided to post: I was not to be antagonistic or instigate a storm in a tea cup. It was because for the third time in 2014 I had been told by a notes developer something along the lines of “I can’t learn XPages because I have read that you need to learn Java and I do not have the time/skill to do so”.
For right or wrong the perception gleaned from community blogging was that was Java was required learning, which is not the case. And so I blogged.
What I did not forsee was the outpouring and wealth of knowledge bestowed on my blog comments by more that 20 members of the XPages community. I believe what was created was much much better than the original post alone and is one of the best examples of the community working together to get the *right* information out there.
The comments are unfortunately not the easiest thing to follow as there are so many of them (which is great) so what I will be doing in the near future is putting together a compilation of the sentient parts of the conversation ( ignoring the pointless sarcasm) as a resource for all.
In the mean time I wanted to say thank you one an all who contributed and to let you know I got so much more out of the post then I ever hoped for.
Thanks !!!
Xomino 
Mark,
Some say that I do weird things with XPages, but to be honest I only have limited experience with Java and yet I have been creating extremely complex applications with XPages. So the answer is no you do not need to learn Java to create XPages applications. If you want to expand your skills and extend then Java will be helpful. Of course, I do mostly front end work for Web and Mobile apps.
Yes the answer really is “it depends on what you want to do, your skill set your requirements and approach. But I can’t think of such a rich resource with so many people contributing in one spot. It is intact a wonderful view of how much you can do with XPages and succeed 🙂
My my recollection more people, myself included, have said you do NOT need to know Java then have said you do. I know a few have said go right for Java, but it’s certainly not the majority of posts, webinars, and videos. So I’m really surprised that people still think you need to learn java.
You do NOT need to know Java for XPages, BUT you might want too and you should absolutely be OPEN to the possibility of adding that tool to your toolbox.
Yep yep – I will do my best to provide a balanced summary next week 🙂
Are you planning to remove the pointless sarcasm from your original post then?
No Leave the sarcasm! It’s inspirational. Then I won’t look as bad in my reply to the original post. 🙂