JSP Technology -- Friend or Foe?

By Brett McLaughlin
2003-03-07

Summary

I hope that I have opened your eyes a bit about the advantages and disadvantages of JSP technology and that now you can look at JSP coding as one alternative among many presentation technologies. At this point, you might also be a bit skeptical about the entire J2EE programming model. If you're convinced to further investigate the platform options, look for alternatives to JSP coding in Apache Cocoon, Enhydra, and the various templating engines.

Finally, keep in mind that, despite all appearances to the contrary, this article isn't about recommending you use JSP or that you avoid it. I do intend to encourage you to peel back the layers of any technology to make sure it's right for you. Programming models are like examples; sometimes they make sense, and sometimes they don't. Look around, find out what works best for you, and make the informed decision, rather than the quick one.

Have fun, and see you on the Web!

Tutorial Pages:
» A critical look at JavaServer Pages servlets as a viable presentation technology
» A bit of history
» The premise
» Segregation vs. integration
» Work vs. rework
» The promise of JSP technology
» Content vs. presentation
» Code vs. markup
» Designer vs. developer
» The problems
» Portability vs. language lock-in
» Mingling vs. independence
» Blurring the line between content and presentation
» Single-processing vs. multi-tasking
» HTML vs. XML
» Summary
» Resources

First published by IBM developerWorks

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