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For my current project, a distributed application with a database back-end, I tried Hibernate and Spring. I really wanted to like them! They have lots of cool features and make some things incredibly easy. But in the end I have gone back to tried-and-true simple tools - Jython, Velocity, Jetty and not much else.
Hibernate felt like it got in the way as much as it helped. I was constantly having to figure out the Hibernate way of things. My data is largely a tree structure flattened into a database table. Hibernate's lazy loading was sometimes great and sometimes exactly wrong.
Spring just felt too big. Every time I needed a new piece I would have to add another Spring jar to my lib directory and usually a few more jars that it depended on. It felt like using a sledgehammer to squash an ant.
Java also feels quite cumbersome now. I have been working primarily in Jython for about a year now and I hate the hoops that Java makes me jump though to get anything done.
In the end it all felt too confining. I was Mech Warrior, high in a robot programming vehicle, directing awesome power from from my command post. But I longed to put my feet on the ground, pick up a light pack and run.
So I have chucked it all, salvaging what I can, starting over for the rest. What a relief it is!
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