ArcGIS Development.Java vs .Net(C#)

Question

I'm a computer scientist and i've been working with Java mostly to develop applications. I just been hired in a company that makes projects with ArcGIS. The company has hired na electrical engineer to develop the arcGIS projects. This engineer used to customize ArcMap with VBA and lately extensions with .NET and C#.

I want to take a new path and start using the ArgGIS Engine with Java. I want to know if this choice is right.Has any of you been developing with Engine-Java and how difficult is it(The use of JNI -for which i have little knoledge- is making it more difficult? ). Also I have a little experience with .NET and c++ but not C#.I will have a big learning curve with this path?

Also which are the advantages and disadvantages and limitations of each method?

Answer 1

Hard question to answer.

• The general opinion seems to be that C# is easy to learn if you know Java.
• IMHO your biggest problem is going to be learning and manipulating the massive, convoluted ArcGIS object model. Choice of language is probably secondary.
• My instinct is that C#/.Net is probably more popular for desktop programming with ArcGIS, so you'll get more community support with that. But I don't know. There's clearly a lot of folks using Java with ArcGIS - I suspect it's mostly server work, but I'm not sure. You might be able to figure out how popular ArcEngine with Java is by checking out the ESRI forum activity.

EDIT. You probably need to decide whether learning C# is going to be valuable in future to your employer (and your career), and balance that against some assessment of whether using Java with ArcGIS engine is unusual, and therefore more risky. Only you can answer the first question.

Answer 2

I absolutely in all respects suggest you stick with C#/.Net over Java. Last time i looked (take this with a grain of salt), the Java Library + COM inter-opt done with ArcGIS is pretty slow when working with certain elements (Arrays, oh god the arrays), also i am pretty sure Java will most likely be the next language to be put onto the cutting block in the near future(VB6 is now getting the axe). Also ESRI's java community is pretty tiny compared to their C#/.NET (however about 50 times bigger then their C++ :()