Java SE vs Java EE, college and career [closed]

Answer 1

The Java language by itself is one aspect of Java development. Applications built with the standard edition fulfill certain needs. Thinking that you can just "wing it" with the enterprise edition if all you know is the standard edition, is a misconception. The libraries make the language. Although certain aspects of Java EE have their (deserved) critics, there is still a great deal of functionality there. Even the questionable parts are still used heavily in the industry.

Answer 2

For all intents and purposes, Java and Java SE are the same thing. When you say you are learning Java SE, it means you are learning Java, its syntax, features and standard libraries. You cannot learn Java EE before learning these skills.

Java EE is a set of standards which define many different interfaces and features for building software to address enterprise level problems. These include things like transactions, distributed computing, messaging, web applications and resource management. All of which are provided in a managed environment. All of which is coded to the Java language, with particular rules and characteristics due to the environment in which the software will run.

Think of learning Java SE as learning to drive a car. Java EE is like learning to drive an 18 wheeler, you don't need to know how to do it to get from A to B, but it sure helps if you have to take 10 tons of cargo with you 8-)

Answer 3

Java EE is just a superset of Java SE (enterprise libraries such as servlets). Learn Java SE and you mostly know Java EE.

Answer 4

In my opinion, university is really meant to teach you to be strong on the fundamentals and concepts not necessarily to teach you the exact skills you will need in a job. So most of all I would recommend that you make sure you're learning the concepts found in enterprise application requirements (e.g. transactions, messaging queues/topics, etc...) However, if this is really a concern for you I would suggest doing a self-study (possibly for course credit). Also, try to find an internship that will let you play in some Java EE code.

I was asking myself the same question when I was nearing the end of university. I'm now working in a Java EE environment and there was some learning curve to use the Java EE libraries. I have to agree with many others and say that doing enterprise java development is not very much fun compared to other projects I've worked on so you might want to keep having fun in university and put off the boring stuff for when you're part of the workforce.

Answer 5

If my College is teaching me Java SE rather than Java EE does this make me less employable?

No. That's what your university should do: focus on fundamentals. In the case of Java, that mostly means the standard edition.

Java EE (not J2EE; see my comment in the question) adds some server-side Java APIs, specifications and libraries. The most important of these are the Servlet API and JSP container specification. But I think it's important to know that even on the server side, it's still mostly about standard Java! It's quite possible that you'll do server-side Java development without ever needing to learn most Java EE technologies, like Enterprise Java Beans (EJB) - especially with the rise of alternative, lightweight approaches such as favouring POJOs, with Hibernate for persistence layer. Many parts of Java EE like EJB have definitely long passed the peak of their hype cycle. You may not even need to know all "lower-level" Servlet and JSP stuff thoroughly, as higher-level frameworks such as Struts, JSF, or Wicket have become popular.

One case study: I learned fundamentals of Java (and OO programming) at the university - and only very little (and nothing practical) about the Enterprise Edition. Now I've worked some 4-5 as "Java EE developer", that is, doing server side Java. I've never really used EJB, or most other Java EE technologies. I've mostly done just pure Java (i.e. standard edition), with some JSP, Servlets, Filters, etc related stuff thrown in (plus of course web techniques like HTML, JS, CSS); making use of lots of (mostly open-source) 3rd party libraries, and picking up everything as needed. (However, I am planning to brush up my knowledge of Java EE, and take the SCWCD at some point - I think that would do me good even if Java SE goes a long way :)

Answer 6

This is how I view it.

The programming language as you know it is called Java.

Like most other programming languages, it also comes bundled with many standard libraries.

Java SE is the combination of both the language and certain libraries that makes general application development possible.

Java EE is another set of libraries that you can use in combination with Java SE to also develop enterprise/web applications.