All the cool new programming languages, like Ruby, always have compilers/interpreters and tools for Linux, and the old UNIX standbys like Tcl/Tk are still around when you need them. Why, then, is Java ...

I have been coding JSP's for a few years now using scriptlets and beans. What should I focus on next? JSTL, Spring or something else? Opinions, thoughts and good arguments are much appreciated.

After a few days of research, I still haven't figured out the best way of doing the following in java 1.4 (yes, it's ancient but it's what Blackboard uses, and this is going to run inside Blackboard).