What are the modern alternatives to Java Servlets?

You're correct that everything is evolving! Servlets are still a solid choice in Java EE/Jakarta EE, especially for enterprise frameworks. You can still experiment with them if you want to set up a J2EE container locally. Just keep in mind that since around 2014, there’s been a paradigm shift towards client-side JS frameworks, making technologies like JAX-RS (now Jakarta RESTful Web Services) the go-to for JSON delivery from a Java backend.

I think people often jump to looking for replacements just because something seems old. Servlets work perfectly fine. They handle HTTP requests and responses, and JAX-RS actually builds on them using the Front Controller pattern. Just because something's been around for a while doesn't mean it's obsolete. Sure, there are more modern approaches like gRPC for certain use cases, but for servlets, what exactly do you think a modern replacement would be?

While servlets are considered a classic technology, they are not out of date by any means. They are simply specs for Java HTTP binding. You can find modern libraries and frameworks like JAX-RS and Spring, which provide different abstractions built upon servlets. At the same time, many people still choose to use servlets because they work well enough for various applications.

If you're looking to explore newer cloud-native paradigms, lightweight frameworks that treat HTTP handling as functions have gained traction over the years. These frameworks prioritize composability and can be found in various programming languages. Helidon is one such Java framework worth checking out. On a side note, using functions as handlers can simplify testing and deployment because they detach functionality from specific infrastructure.

All the stuff that used to be in `javax.servlet` is now part of `Jakarta.servlet`. The Java EE specs moved out of the JDK/JRE to make the installation more modular. If you're looking for documentation, you can find it at Jakarta's official site. That said, nowadays, a lot of web apps are built using Spring Boot, which can create servlets in a WAR file or even full-fledged servers in a fat JAR. If you're curious, you could also explore options like Quarkus, which takes a different approach and isn't directly built on servlets.