Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

picocli VS Docker

Compare picocli VS Docker and see what are their differences

picocli logo picocli

Application and Data, Languages & Frameworks, and Shell Utilities

Docker logo Docker

Docker is an open platform that enables developers and system administrators to create distributed applications.
  • picocli Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-27
  • Docker Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-25

picocli

Pricing URL
-
$ Details
Release Date
-

Docker

Website
docker.com
$ Details
Release Date
2013 January
Startup details
Country
United States
State
California
Founder(s)
Solomon Hykes
Employees
50 - 99

picocli features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    Picocli provides a simple API that makes it easy for developers to create command-line applications. You can annotate your command-line applications directly with annotations, which reduces boilerplate code and improves readability.
  • Rich Features
    It supports a wide range of features such as nested subcommands, color output, internationalization, and type conversion for command-line arguments, offering developers a comprehensive tool for building complex CLIs.
  • Strong Type Safety
    Picocli uses Java's strong type system, allowing developers to leverage compile-time type checks and ensuring that command-line arguments are type-safe.
  • Built-in Help and Auto-Completion
    Picocli can automatically generate help messages and bash/zsh auto-completion scripts, enhancing user experience by making command-line tools more user-friendly.
  • Active Community and Good Documentation
    Picocli has an active community and comprehensive documentation, which makes it easier for developers to find resources and get support when needed.

Possible disadvantages of picocli

  • Java Dependency
    Since Picocli is a Java library, it requires the Java Runtime Environment. This might not be ideal for environments where Java is not preferred or already in use.
  • Learning Curve for Annotations
    While annotations simplify CLI development, they can introduce a learning curve for developers unfamiliar with Java annotations or those coming from non-Java backgrounds.
  • Overhead for Simple Applications
    For very simple command-line applications, using picocli might introduce unnecessary complexity compared to straightforward scripting languages like Bash or Python.

Docker features and specs

  • Portability
    Docker containers are designed to run consistently across different environments such as development, testing, and production, ensuring that software behaves the same regardless of where it's deployed.
  • Efficiency
    Docker containers share the host OS kernel and use fewer resources compared to traditional virtual machines, which allows for faster startups and reduced overhead.
  • Isolation
    Containers encapsulate the application and its dependencies in a separate environment, which minimizes conflicts between different applications' dependencies.
  • Scalability
    Docker makes it easier to scale applications quickly and manage resource allocation dynamically, which is particularly useful for microservices architectures.
  • Continuous Integration and Deployment
    Docker facilitates CI/CD processes by making it easier to automate the deployment pipeline, resulting in faster code releases and more frequent updates.
  • Community and Ecosystem
    A vast community and a rich ecosystem of tools and pre-built images in Docker Hub, enabling you to quickly find and reuse code and solutions.

Possible disadvantages of Docker

  • Complexity
    While Docker can simplify certain aspects of deployment, it adds a layer of complexity to the infrastructure that might require specialized knowledge and training.
  • Security
    Containers share the host OS kernel, which can pose security risks if an attacker gains access to the kernel. Proper isolation and security measures must be implemented.
  • Persistent Data
    Managing persistent data in Docker can be challenging, as containers are ephemeral and the default storage solutions are not always suitable for all applications.
  • Monitoring and Debugging
    Traditional monitoring and debugging tools might not work well with containerized applications, requiring specialized tools and approaches which can complicate troubleshooting.
  • Performance Overhead
    Although lighter than virtual machines, Docker containers can still introduce performance overheads, especially when multiple containers are running simultaneously.
  • Compatibility
    Not all software and systems are fully compatible with Docker, which can limit its use in certain legacy applications and complex environments.

Analysis of Docker

Overall verdict

  • Docker is considered a strong choice for containerization due to its robust feature set, community support, and ecosystem. It is praised for making applications more portable and for reducing 'it works on my machine' issues. However, like any technology, it has a learning curve and may not be necessary for simpler projects.

Why this product is good

  • Docker is a widely-used platform that simplifies and accelerates the process of developing, testing, and deploying applications by using containerization technology. It allows developers to package applications and their dependencies into lightweight, portable containers that can run consistently across any environment. This greatly enhances efficiency, scalability, and collaboration within development teams.

Recommended for

  • Developers seeking to streamline application deployment across multiple environments
  • Teams looking for consistency in application performance and operations
  • Organizations that require scalable solutions for microservices architectures
  • Projects that benefit from CI/CD practices and need automation in deployment pipelines

picocli videos

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Docker videos

What is Docker in 5 minutes

More videos:

  • Tutorial - What is Docker? Why it's popular and how to use it to save money (tutorial)
  • Review - Real World PHP Dockerfile Review, from a #Docker Captain

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to picocli and Docker)
Developer Tools
5 5%
95% 95
Programming
100 100%
0% 0
Containers As A Service
0 0%
100% 100
Software Development
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare picocli and Docker

picocli Reviews

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Docker Reviews

Exploring 7 Efficient Alternatives to MAMP for Local Development Environments
Though not specifically designed for PHP development, Docker offers a containerized approach to create, deploy, and run applications. It enables easy installation of PHP, web servers, and databases within containers, facilitating quick and consistent development environment setups.
Source: medium.com
Top 6 Alternatives to XAMPP for Local Development Environments
Docker - A containerization platform that allows developers to package applications and their dependencies into containers. Docker Compose can be used to define multi-container application stacks, including web servers, databases, and other services. Features powerful portability and consistency, supports rapid building, sharing, and container management, suitable for...
Source: dev.to
The Top 7 Kubernetes Alternatives for Container Orchestration
Docker uses images as templates to create new containers using Docker engine commands such as Build -t or run -d.
Kubernetes Alternatives 2023: Top 8 Container Orchestration Tools
Docker is an open-source platform for building, managing, deploying containerized applications. Swarm is a native feature in Docker with a group of virtual or physical machines that lets you schedule, cluster, and run Docker applications. It is a Docker alternative for Kubernetes that provides high portability, agility, and high availability.
Top 12 Kubernetes Alternatives to Choose From in 2023
Docker Swarm is a native clustering and orchestration solution provided by Docker, the leading containerization platform.
Source: humalect.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Docker should be more popular than picocli. It has been mentiond 74 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

picocli mentions (21)

  • 🥳 We built the cli of our dreams to send sms ❣️
    Since a few years now, we started to design various cli for internal batch usage, on our Java Stack on top of picocli and quarkus, delivered as images, and run on podman. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • Making Contributions
    His project uses picocli for argument parsing. I briefly looked through the documentation and realized it was pretty similar to the clap crate I used for my project. So I mimicked his other code as well as my own understanding of clap. This part was easy. - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
  • “Why I develop on Windows”
    "and there are simply no good command line input parsing libraries for Java." Looks like author missed the most obvious and popular OSS one: https://picocli.info/. - Source: Hacker News / about 2 years ago
  • Java 20 / JDK 20: General Availability
    The command line example gave me the "ick". It is usually preferrable to parse the command line arguments into one instance of a custom "command class", rather than into a list of things. Like jcommander, picocli or jbock do. Source: about 2 years ago
  • any opinion good or bed about a code that smells?
    Complex argument parsing needs to be auto-generated by libraries like picocli. Even if you need something custom, it'd be quicker to write an Annotation processor from scratch than editing that file. Source: over 2 years ago
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Docker mentions (74)

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What are some alternatives?

When comparing picocli and Docker, you can also consider the following products

Oh My Zsh - A delightful community-driven framework for managing your zsh configuration.

Kubernetes - Kubernetes is an open source orchestration system for Docker containers

tmux - tmux is a terminal multiplexer: it enables a number of terminals (or windows), each running a...

Rancher - Open Source Platform for Running a Private Container Service

TortoiseSVN - The coolest interface to (Sub)version control

Portainer - Simple management UI for Docker