[smoyer]

We're (re)developing almost all our infrastructure in modern Java EE (as layers of microservices). We're seeing less than 2mS response time for most services and can afford to stack quite a few to build our customer facing applications.

Ignoring the business logic, a RESTful API can be built to run on a Java EE application server in about 10 lines of code. And it will run on any Java EE 6-7 compliant server implementation (as a single JAX-RS application ... you'll need Java EE 7 for multiple JAX-RS applications per context).

EDIT:

I also should have pointed out that the "XML Hell" that was required to configure applications and almost every managed object in J2EE <= 4 has been eliminated. When the default behavior isn't quite what you want, meta-programming can be accomplished with an annotation in the code. The few remaining XML files can often be left empty - they're simply markers that activate features of the server (CDI bean scanning, Java Server Faces, etc).

[616c]

Excellent timing. So I have played most of the time since college in Python, bash, Perl, and very little Ruby (in that order). I am going back to school to Java as part of my "torture yourself with the basics you blew off" undergrad career that was not CS, and now had a change of heart.

I have seen in /r/java and Reddit and elsewhere people eschew even for newbies the use of Spring Boot, Ninja, Dropwizard in company. Some like you say Java EE is very friendly and I can write a full-featured REST service in like a dozen or so lines of Java. Seeing as I wrote small pieces of homework "employee ID insertion into memory" classes in like 100-200 lines, can you show me said examples? Hyperbole or not, I would love to see good articles about building REST services and other stuff in pure Java EE and/or JAX-RS style explaining how a Java newbie can do this stuff.

I think other novates would greatly appreciate. The expanse of Java web libraries is so vast even showing the minimalist modern style I am jealous of in your post would be a huge benefit to me.

UPDATE: Oh Jesus Christ! Now I remember why the name Zeef seemed familiar. You make that one of the few tutorial sites I found. Now, I will go crawl under the HN couch while onlookers stare and surpress chuckles. Always read the articles, dammit! Or meet me under the couch, rather.