[Java] Deep into the Java trenches

Long time no blogging... I'm deep, deep under cover... uh, no, not really. I'm deep into the Java portlet stuff at the moment, and I've realized (once more) that doing stuff (like coding some simple functionality in a portal) takes WAY longer in a Java portal than it does in say for example SharePoint or even the free IBuySpy portal. At the moment it feels like I'm spending 90% working with the environment, trying to get things to work and compile and only 10% coding the actual function!

It was the same thing 2-3 years ago when I was architecturing a full fledged J2EE app using BEA Weblogic, Oracle and the iPlanet LDAP catalogue and amazingly enough NOTHING HAS CHANGED! I'm getting stuck editing sh*tloads of xml config files, ANT scripts, finding the right plug-ins (and the right version of this plug-in that works with the version of the IDE I'm using), finding the right jar-files (downloding loads of them from apache and jakarta) etc... Must it really be like this? Then you got the never ending discussion amongst the coders about which Java editor to use... yikes!

One way is to go for a certain portal, say from BEA, then use their tools to develop portal functionality. But then your're stuck with BEA and you'll get hell when/if you want to move to another J2EE portal platform, even if you stick to coding JSR168 portlets.

I really don't mind the coding bits, the Java language is great, but the rest that comes with it I can do without for sure.