Advantages and Disadvantages of the Spring Framework

[josh.s17]

Hi,

Just wanted explore whether with using the spring framwork is a common
experience. I can see same great advantages with using Spring however I
have this nagging feeling that it isn't the magic solution that some
people seem to make it out to be.

My gut feeling is the Spring framework is something that only
"experienced" java developers would appreciate and choose to use as it
solves problems that that large commercial developers comes across
often eg jdbc error handling is quite ugly but Spring JDBC templates
solves this problem.

However the downside of Spring is trying to learn it. Learning J2SE.
then J2EE (even just the web component parts) and also some widely
used java frameworks takes a long time. Mastering or even being a
novice at the Spring framework take a fair amount of time in addition
to this.

I'm also concerned that the extra configuration involved in using
Spring can reduce the understandability of the code for a newcomer
especially if they are not a Spring expert themselves.

Any thoughts?

Josh

 

[Christopher Benson-Manica]

Just wanted explore whether with using the spring framwork is a common
experience. I can see same great advantages with using Spring however I
have this nagging feeling that it isn't the magic solution that some
people seem to make it out to be.

Nothing's "magic". Spring's many pieces can be very useful, but they
aren't usually the whole solution.

However the downside of Spring is trying to learn it. Learning J2SE.
then J2EE (even just the web component parts) and also some widely
used java frameworks takes a long time. Mastering or even being a
novice at the Spring framework take a fair amount of time in addition
to this.

The basic Spring container is something that every Java developer can
easily use; I hadn't written Java, let alone Spring, in June of last
year, and I managed to pick up the basics as I went along in a month
or two. The documentation is readily accessible to novice Java
programmers, IMO. You don't have to be a Spring guru to pick and
choose the pieces that fit your needs and use them.

Any thoughts?

Use the pieces of Spring that make your life easier without a second
thought.

 

[John Ersatznom]

The basic Spring container is something that every Java developer can
easily use; I hadn't written Java, let alone Spring, in June of last
year, and I managed to pick up the basics as I went along in a month
or two. The documentation is readily accessible to novice Java
programmers, IMO. You don't have to be a Spring guru to pick and
choose the pieces that fit your needs and use them.

s/Spring/Swing and this remains basically true. In fact, for the entire
standard Java API too. Just don't get overwhelmed by its sheer size.

And be on the lookout for the Java 8 SDK (or maybe 9) to include large
chunks of it and bloat the JDK by another 20+ megs any year now. It's
becoming quite the feeping creature. Do we really need *another* XML
parser implementation?!