"You know what - Java sucks". When someone tells something in those lines in front me - my blood boils. I am literally letting my heart speak rather than making the expression any less intense.
Well, as a matter of fact, I was one of the victims of this unnamed syndrome when I graduated from college. At that time, we had three choices - C or C++ or Java. Some went ahead with C, few with C++ and many with Java. I belonged to the last camp. My frequent attempts were to educate people with Java and how powerful it is. I despised people who coded in C - like they live in some sixties still. For C++ people, I had some admiration - but I knew that 90% people who say that they write C++ code, actually mean they write "C with Classes" code. So, I often indulged in verbal bashes in favor of Java (quoting the design patterns to whom most were unfamiliar). Sometimes, I could convince people - sometimes I just gave it up.
After a while, AJAX came into picture. That, I believe, is a turning point in defining what would be the perfect language. I will give the answer after a few lines here. The next noticeable turnaround was the chanting of "python" mantra by Google-related sources. People said that C++ and Java are soon to be extinct : scripting is the way to go. You will find millions of just blog lines and comments arguing that this language is the future and that cannot hold any longer. Had those developers written that many lines of code - probably some company would have posted more profit than Google did (or whomsoever is the leader in this area). Few long-bearded gentlemen proposed Rails and further Ruby-on-Rails. I guess - that is the sweetest name of any framework I have ever heard. And again all hell broke loose. People against people - on something so abstract.
And still today I hear it - "Java is for web development Man! Do you want to go in that field?"
People who are expert in PERL should die. And those still writing code in Assembly - I guess they should take a hack-saw, put in some salt & after-shave mix on the ridge and start cutting their throats right now. I am sad to say them this - You guys don't even get discussed among these people. Read on.... you can do those once you are done with this article. I hope you change your mind.
The ONLY answer I have for all these people - who ask such STUPID question & perhaps are too adamant about seeing the truth is : Someday, you are going to learn it the hard way - brutal and it will hurt.
"There exists no ONE language for all purposes". That being said, people still try to make coteries among language. Oh you know what - if you are in this subset {ASM,C,C++}, then take the kleen closure and you are cool. Otherwise, you are not among the best. Shocking!!
I have been riding this wave for 4 years now. And perhaps I can see the shore. My belief is that there is exists no ONE language for all solutions. Neither coteries help. What matters the most is this simple question - "What is the fastest way you can make money out of the effort you put in and once done how long does it take you to keep it generating worthy revenue". I guess you would understand how sensible that question is - you involve business in and you see everyone is nodding and listening to you very carefully. Read on.
Money matters to us all. We may want to be a filthy rich professional or are a humble millionaire already through stock options - what we all believe in at the end of the day is we EARN our money and this earning never dries - till we are faithful to our work.
Said that - we are always home with certain technologies like C++, Java, Oracle, MS Office etc to name a few. Anything beyond that will make our ears go deaf. Protests will just be knocked out without giving any second thoughts.
No doubt they are the best products of some of the VERY best minds in our industry - but didn't they solve some purpose too easily which at one time looked unsolvable. That is the main reason why they have gained so much popularity and people have embraced it. But one needs to know, someday a bigger different problem would exist - and then everything would break loose again. We need a new solution and it would be one of its kind. Evolution is something which we can't stop. We HAVE to embrace it and live our lives.
So for people who are still reading as in why Java DOES NOT suck against C++ - I will answer next.
Any product, given a bunch of exceptionally talented engineers, can be written to the best it can perform. Did I forget the language part there?
No.
You guys might want to read the INTERNET more than a NORMAL / AVERAGE person who uses Java does. There are many benchmarks which cite performance measurements with Java outperforming C++ compiled with g++. I AM NO WAY SAYING NOW THAT C++ IS BAD. There can be many reasons to this - The platform can be a mobile phone whose stack was implemented in Java - so JVM compatibility was the best when the apps were written in Java. What you often forget is the following two simple things which are utmost important to any product development:
1. Time to turn around the concept to reality - a neat and clean working code
2. Time to fix bugs
Now, if you really don't want to hold no longer and ask the AGE-OLD tried and tested missile question - "What happened to performance" - All I can say is this - "Every language gives you freedom to fiddle with it - to the degree that you modify and use it to the best you want to". In case of Java, you may want to redefine the garbage collection and tweak in the JVM. But you won't : as language bashing is the easier route.
A new age is upon us. When I started using computers, C++ was the standard. Java came into boom in late nineties. We bid goodbyes to procedural languages and welcomed OO frameworks. Somewhere and sometime, scripting language sneaked in. Some trillions of lines were written overnight and they remain as backbone and sometimes the most important asset of many companies. We jumped guns and embraced Javascript through AJAX - because it just looked cool. The person who still does not know what is the POWER of AJAX : will not give you an iota of respect if you say that your bread and butter is Javascript. May be PHP might sound cool to him. (Don't say ASP or JScript - you will fall 'down' into some domain that he cannot define himself).
Then why is that Cisco still uses Assembly in its best possible routing codes. Why do companies employ people to learn PERL and write those very million dollars worthy UNIT test cases - is TDD bad after all? Or why does not Google do all its development just in C++? Why does Microsoft spend money after all in inventing F# or asking teams to build products using D. Why Bruce Eckel takes the pain in evaluating Scala and advising people that it is the most definitive successor to Java. Why in MIT if you still get admitted, you get to use Scheme. And you thought coding in Python was cool.
Baseline - It is the time to build and sell the product which matters. Do it in a language you are comfortable with - so that you will write less buggy code and give a better output in the time assigned to you. But by that don't convince youself that you have evolved to the best you can. Keep you eyes open. C++ has its place - may be in embedded systems, may be with C++0x you would find a Concurrent Language worthy of learning (you might want to learn a language which is inherently concurrent - not just supports threads as a library). When you speak about Oct core systems, if you write a program which does not exploit Concurrency - you should feel sick downright - coz you are wasting computing power. Don't you think there should be language ConcurrentJava which would befit. Or you still want to to fall into your coterie and be Multi-C.
Java or C++ - they have places to stay. So is ASM. You want real time - use ASM. You want little lesser than that use C. May be even C++ now-a-days gives almost the same runtime support with HALF the development and perhaps ONE-EIGHTH the maintainance time. Use Java to build applications in Distributed Platforms - Isn't today all the work done in distributed scenarios? You want performance - tweak in JVM. Profile and profile. When you give up - know that given ONE-TENTH the time you invested in coding it in Java, you can achieve the same mark if you switch to any different language if you have some excellent coders in your team and IF YOUR DESIGN IS PERFECT. People neglect the 80/20 rule and start cursing Java. They don't realize that the 80 belongs to the debugging and cross-platform issues in C++. In Java most of the time is spent in designing. Still, some good coders are faithful and regardless of language, spend time in architecting the entire thing - before even deciding what to use : I say they are the best coders, even if they have not written even one damn line!
So, start googling for the language problems you feel you have. There can't be a case that all your problems are solved by one paradigm solution. Learn at least one from each - Assembly, Procedural, OO, Scripting and Functional (sorry, If I missed anything here - tell me and I will learn). You can build a browser in just 25 lines of Python code. While in some - you can multiply two matrices in just one line.
Remember that what matters is you should propose a solution which should be independent of underlying infrastructure. Model you design to not compromise with anything. Then start picking what fits in best based on constraints you have :
1. Time to build and sell (Productivity counts)
2. Ease of collaboration
3. Ease of Maintainance
4. Debugging
5. Inherent features and Recent Developments
6. Open Source Initiatives and Available Plugins
7. Scalability and Performance Metrics
8. Agility
So the next time if someone asks you - "Do you recommend me reading Java or C++?". Just stare and stay silent - Do not utter a word. I hope he feels like he asked a question which perplexed you so much that you could hit him at any moment. After sometime he would realize it and start describing the actual problem in his design and then asking for advice. All you need now is to educate him not to ask that little **stupid** question again.
Well, as a matter of fact, I was one of the victims of this unnamed syndrome when I graduated from college. At that time, we had three choices - C or C++ or Java. Some went ahead with C, few with C++ and many with Java. I belonged to the last camp. My frequent attempts were to educate people with Java and how powerful it is. I despised people who coded in C - like they live in some sixties still. For C++ people, I had some admiration - but I knew that 90% people who say that they write C++ code, actually mean they write "C with Classes" code. So, I often indulged in verbal bashes in favor of Java (quoting the design patterns to whom most were unfamiliar). Sometimes, I could convince people - sometimes I just gave it up.
After a while, AJAX came into picture. That, I believe, is a turning point in defining what would be the perfect language. I will give the answer after a few lines here. The next noticeable turnaround was the chanting of "python" mantra by Google-related sources. People said that C++ and Java are soon to be extinct : scripting is the way to go. You will find millions of just blog lines and comments arguing that this language is the future and that cannot hold any longer. Had those developers written that many lines of code - probably some company would have posted more profit than Google did (or whomsoever is the leader in this area). Few long-bearded gentlemen proposed Rails and further Ruby-on-Rails. I guess - that is the sweetest name of any framework I have ever heard. And again all hell broke loose. People against people - on something so abstract.
And still today I hear it - "Java is for web development Man! Do you want to go in that field?"
People who are expert in PERL should die. And those still writing code in Assembly - I guess they should take a hack-saw, put in some salt & after-shave mix on the ridge and start cutting their throats right now. I am sad to say them this - You guys don't even get discussed among these people. Read on.... you can do those once you are done with this article. I hope you change your mind.
The ONLY answer I have for all these people - who ask such STUPID question & perhaps are too adamant about seeing the truth is : Someday, you are going to learn it the hard way - brutal and it will hurt.
"There exists no ONE language for all purposes". That being said, people still try to make coteries among language. Oh you know what - if you are in this subset {ASM,C,C++}, then take the kleen closure and you are cool. Otherwise, you are not among the best. Shocking!!
I have been riding this wave for 4 years now. And perhaps I can see the shore. My belief is that there is exists no ONE language for all solutions. Neither coteries help. What matters the most is this simple question - "What is the fastest way you can make money out of the effort you put in and once done how long does it take you to keep it generating worthy revenue". I guess you would understand how sensible that question is - you involve business in and you see everyone is nodding and listening to you very carefully. Read on.
Money matters to us all. We may want to be a filthy rich professional or are a humble millionaire already through stock options - what we all believe in at the end of the day is we EARN our money and this earning never dries - till we are faithful to our work.
Said that - we are always home with certain technologies like C++, Java, Oracle, MS Office etc to name a few. Anything beyond that will make our ears go deaf. Protests will just be knocked out without giving any second thoughts.
No doubt they are the best products of some of the VERY best minds in our industry - but didn't they solve some purpose too easily which at one time looked unsolvable. That is the main reason why they have gained so much popularity and people have embraced it. But one needs to know, someday a bigger different problem would exist - and then everything would break loose again. We need a new solution and it would be one of its kind. Evolution is something which we can't stop. We HAVE to embrace it and live our lives.
So for people who are still reading as in why Java DOES NOT suck against C++ - I will answer next.
Any product, given a bunch of exceptionally talented engineers, can be written to the best it can perform. Did I forget the language part there?
No.
You guys might want to read the INTERNET more than a NORMAL / AVERAGE person who uses Java does. There are many benchmarks which cite performance measurements with Java outperforming C++ compiled with g++. I AM NO WAY SAYING NOW THAT C++ IS BAD. There can be many reasons to this - The platform can be a mobile phone whose stack was implemented in Java - so JVM compatibility was the best when the apps were written in Java. What you often forget is the following two simple things which are utmost important to any product development:
1. Time to turn around the concept to reality - a neat and clean working code
2. Time to fix bugs
Now, if you really don't want to hold no longer and ask the AGE-OLD tried and tested missile question - "What happened to performance" - All I can say is this - "Every language gives you freedom to fiddle with it - to the degree that you modify and use it to the best you want to". In case of Java, you may want to redefine the garbage collection and tweak in the JVM. But you won't : as language bashing is the easier route.
A new age is upon us. When I started using computers, C++ was the standard. Java came into boom in late nineties. We bid goodbyes to procedural languages and welcomed OO frameworks. Somewhere and sometime, scripting language sneaked in. Some trillions of lines were written overnight and they remain as backbone and sometimes the most important asset of many companies. We jumped guns and embraced Javascript through AJAX - because it just looked cool. The person who still does not know what is the POWER of AJAX : will not give you an iota of respect if you say that your bread and butter is Javascript. May be PHP might sound cool to him. (Don't say ASP or JScript - you will fall 'down' into some domain that he cannot define himself).
Then why is that Cisco still uses Assembly in its best possible routing codes. Why do companies employ people to learn PERL and write those very million dollars worthy UNIT test cases - is TDD bad after all? Or why does not Google do all its development just in C++? Why does Microsoft spend money after all in inventing F# or asking teams to build products using D. Why Bruce Eckel takes the pain in evaluating Scala and advising people that it is the most definitive successor to Java. Why in MIT if you still get admitted, you get to use Scheme. And you thought coding in Python was cool.
Baseline - It is the time to build and sell the product which matters. Do it in a language you are comfortable with - so that you will write less buggy code and give a better output in the time assigned to you. But by that don't convince youself that you have evolved to the best you can. Keep you eyes open. C++ has its place - may be in embedded systems, may be with C++0x you would find a Concurrent Language worthy of learning (you might want to learn a language which is inherently concurrent - not just supports threads as a library). When you speak about Oct core systems, if you write a program which does not exploit Concurrency - you should feel sick downright - coz you are wasting computing power. Don't you think there should be language ConcurrentJava which would befit. Or you still want to to fall into your coterie and be Multi-C.
Java or C++ - they have places to stay. So is ASM. You want real time - use ASM. You want little lesser than that use C. May be even C++ now-a-days gives almost the same runtime support with HALF the development and perhaps ONE-EIGHTH the maintainance time. Use Java to build applications in Distributed Platforms - Isn't today all the work done in distributed scenarios? You want performance - tweak in JVM. Profile and profile. When you give up - know that given ONE-TENTH the time you invested in coding it in Java, you can achieve the same mark if you switch to any different language if you have some excellent coders in your team and IF YOUR DESIGN IS PERFECT. People neglect the 80/20 rule and start cursing Java. They don't realize that the 80 belongs to the debugging and cross-platform issues in C++. In Java most of the time is spent in designing. Still, some good coders are faithful and regardless of language, spend time in architecting the entire thing - before even deciding what to use : I say they are the best coders, even if they have not written even one damn line!
So, start googling for the language problems you feel you have. There can't be a case that all your problems are solved by one paradigm solution. Learn at least one from each - Assembly, Procedural, OO, Scripting and Functional (sorry, If I missed anything here - tell me and I will learn). You can build a browser in just 25 lines of Python code. While in some - you can multiply two matrices in just one line.
Remember that what matters is you should propose a solution which should be independent of underlying infrastructure. Model you design to not compromise with anything. Then start picking what fits in best based on constraints you have :
1. Time to build and sell (Productivity counts)
2. Ease of collaboration
3. Ease of Maintainance
4. Debugging
5. Inherent features and Recent Developments
6. Open Source Initiatives and Available Plugins
7. Scalability and Performance Metrics
8. Agility
So the next time if someone asks you - "Do you recommend me reading Java or C++?". Just stare and stay silent - Do not utter a word. I hope he feels like he asked a question which perplexed you so much that you could hit him at any moment. After sometime he would realize it and start describing the actual problem in his design and then asking for advice. All you need now is to educate him not to ask that little **stupid** question again.
