Question

I am little confused about Java frameworks (I am coming from .NET). Do you need different server setups to run Java, J2EE and JSP? Does Java make a distinction in frameworks for enterprise and non-enterprise deployments? Beans? Struts?

Can someone make sense of this for me?

.NET has:

1. Windows development (Winforms, WPF)
2. web:
   i) webforms
   ii) mvc

Answer 1

These are the most commonly used terms that correspond to your “Java versions”:

• JRE: Java runtime environment, what’s needed to run Java programs
• JDK: Java development kit, a JRE plus compiler and some additional tools
• Jave SE: Standard Edition, the API library that comes with every JRE and JDK for desktop use
• Jave EE: Enterprise Edition, additional APIs that extend the J2SE for business use, meaning mainly server applications – this includes JSPs
• Jave ME: Mobile Edition, a set of APIs (mainly a subset of J2SE) for mobile devices like phones

(The latter three are often also written as J2SE, J2EE and J2ME meaning “Java 2 ___ Edition” – Sun’s naming and versioning convention are rather confusing)

Note that all of these are basically specifications, and there are implementations from different vendors. For example, you can get a J2SE 6 JDK not only from Sun, but also from IBM and Oracle.