Should I learn Google App Engine? There are several advantages of the Google App Engine, such as it being free.
Not having to pay for servers or rent server space is useful, as long as you don't hit their quota.
That's ten apps per developer. Applications are limited to 150 megabytes, though the Blob store lets you store up to 50MB of files.
Google limits developers to pure Python code and a few Java API. No C or Pyrex or PHP or Haskell.
No one is going to write Google apps in Haskell, which is as obsolete as Fortran or Lisp. I think it supports Go, too.
If Google limits use of its App Engine to its own programming language, they'll lose out to Amazon's web services division in the blink of an eye.
You get rid of the need to monitor the app server, handle failover and deploy code. Application administration is way easier.
You only get read only access to the file system. Java applications are limited to the JRE Class White List, and they can't create new threads.
You think they're tying you up with a black list. You get standardization.
Most web apps today would require major modifications to run on the Google App Engine just because they use a relational database, which Google's service doesn't support.
That doesn't matter if I'm developing new apps. And you can still retrieve and store data to databases, sent email, cache data and manipulate data.
That's good for handling orders and sending spam. It isn't suitable for CPU intensive calculations and a lot of engineering applications.
But it is easy to develop a game and deploy it via the App Engine. Scaling is easy on Google, too, if I get a good thing going.
Google's App Engine is great for the next Candy Crush or fitness monitor. For financial, technical or graphics intensive apps, it just won't work.
It's good enough to get a lot of developers going.
It is a good sandbox, and a way to create a code demo for use in your interviews. For the real world, you'll need to know something bigger and better.
iTunes App Store? Or Amazon's web services?
