Devoxx 2014 - Whiteboard votes

As is traditional, the attendees of Devoxx vote on certain topics on whiteboards. Each result must be treated with care - there is no validation process, and only a fraction of the 3500 attendees actually bother to vote. Nevertheless, the results can be interesting.

What version of Java do you use at work right now?

A high level question focussed on Java at the day job. Java 8 hasn't surpassed Java 6 yet, but it is doing pretty well. Remember that Java 7 is End-Of-Life in April 2015!

Java 9	1
Java 8	63
Java 7	160
Java 6	81
Java 5	11
Java 4	3
Java 3	1
Dalvik	6
Other	4

What IDE do you use?

A sense of how the IDE market is looking. The interesting data point is how Eclipse is falling - compare with 2008, where Eclipse led IntelliJ by almost 2 to 1, and NetBeans by almost 4 to 1. Sadly, the absolute number of votes is a lot lower than 6 years ago, so be careful with comparisons.

Eclipse	36
NetBeans	26
IntelliJ	75
Vi/vim	8
Other	1

Beyond this, I heard various people comment on IBM's apparent withdrawal of funding for Eclipse IDE and what that might mean looking forward.

What JVM language are you using?

An attempt to see what languages people are using. Whenever this is asked, it is always an opportunity for advocates of a language to push hard, so again take the results with a good pinch of salt:

Java	214
Scala	64
Groovy	62
Clojure	15
Rhino/JS	6
Ceylon	3
Kotlin	1
Cobol	1

Is merging Scala into Java a good idea?

An odd question with a predictable answer - WTF!

Yes	3
No	26
WTF?! seriously?	52
Depends	2

What JavaScript framework/library do you use?

An open question that showed a clear dominance for Angular.

Angular	51
Ember	4
Reactive	2
Backbone	6
Knockout	7
Angular-Dart	3
Dojo	5
JQuery	9
Meteor	2

Is this the end for Angular?

Angular 2.0 - "no migration path, not backwards compatible". Whether this is factually correct or not, this was the question asked.

Yes	4
No	47
Maybe	12
Hate JavaScript	24
Follow GWT	1

What desktop UI technology have you used in the last 3 years?

A sense of where the desktop UI is today. Given that JavaFX has only been truly useful in Java SE 8, its not a bad showing for FX.

None	39
Swing	41
JavaFX	15
MS .NET	10
Chrome apps	2
Eclipse RCP	14
NetBeans platform	2
QT	5
VCL	1
CLI	4
OGLPHI	1
Applet	2
Broswer/HTML	7

How do you create WebApps?

An open question on web technologies. Bear in mind that some options were added after others, notably JAX-RS+JavaScript, which was added long after REST+JavaScript. I think its fair to say that there are an odd mix of answers, but a clear leader in REST + JavaScript.

JSF+JavaEE	44
REST+JavaScript	101
JAX-RS+JavaScript	9
Play	23
Swing MVC	76
Wicket	26
JavaScript library	50
Grails	8
GWT	30
Vaadin	20
Apache Sling	6
WebSockets+JavaScript	6
Spray+AkkaHTTP	6
Ruby on Rails	2
ZK framework	4
OmniFaces	4
PrimeFaces	10
REST+Dart	2
Fluent-HTTP	1
AngularJS	23
Polymer	3
By hand, with love	2
Web motion	3
Struts v1 or v2	11
Beehive	2
JRuby	3
Bootstrap	2

What one thing would you add to Java (your top priority)?

A traditional Devoxx question, with a long shopping list of answers, as always. Note however that Brian Goetz indicated strongly that properties as a language feature is not happening.

Properties	54
Better handling of null	33
Multi-line strings	33
Safe null dereference	23
Interpolation of strings	22
Immutability	21
Value types	16
Unsigned int	11
Too bloated!	8
Better logging	7
Pattern matching	8
Sub-package scope	4
Tail recursion	3
Solve expression problem	2
Algorithmic data types	2
Class versioning	2
Cluster aware JVM	1
Performance	1
Free$ embedded support	1
Inner functions	1
Generators and co-routines	1
Operator overloading	1 (plus 2 minus 1 !)
Enterprise modularity	1

Summary

Lots of interesting, and no doubt slightly dubious, statistics to examine. Use with care, and congratulations to the Devoxx team for another great conference!