Have Bench Time - want to pick up another language - C# or JAVA?

[Charles Rush]

I have some bench time and want to pick up a new language to, perhaps,
reduce the amount of bench time in the future. To that end, I've been
looking at either the C#/.NET (VB/.NET?) thing with the goal of getting
an MCAD, or going the JAVA route getting a Sun certification. What do
you think? Is the Sun training the best for JAVA? What about C# or VB
training?

A little background. I've been a programmer for about 20 years with
languages going back to the old BASIC. I'm primarily a mainframe
programmer with IBM Assembler, but also have Fortran, COBOL, and PL/I.
I also have Javascript, HTML, TC/L, and the older Visual Basic. I have
taken intro classes in C, JAVA, and C++ but though they paid for the
classes, my company wouldn't let me transfer to positions where I could
actually use them. I'm currently in the process of finishing a quick
tutorial on Prolog just to get the feel of it. In addition, I have the
Visual Studio 6.0 suite (C++ and VB), but because of work demands, never
got around to installing it.

Thanks

 

[Scott Ellsworth]

I have some bench time and want to pick up a new language to, perhaps,
reduce the amount of bench time in the future.

Always a good idea.

To that end, I've been
looking at either the C#/.NET (VB/.NET?) thing with the goal of getting
an MCAD, or going the JAVA route getting a Sun certification. What do
you think? Is the Sun training the best for JAVA? What about C# or VB
training?

I would not be all that concerned about the certs.

For my part, I would suggest Java. It is a fairly slick language with a
good set of libraries, and a good presence server side. Further, you
are not limited just to Windows as your deployment platforms - an issue
if you want to take your tools from gig to gig.

If, though, your goal is to develop programs under and only under
windows, then C# is pretty compelling. I do not like it as much as
Java, and I find many parts of developing with it clunky, but either is
probably better than VB for finding new gigs.

Scott