Java is ranked as one of the world’s most widely used programming languages in the world by surveys from the likes of the Developer State of the Union and the TIOBE Index. It consistently battles stalwarts such as Python, C#, and JavaScript for top recognition and has held steadfast to the number one or number two spot for over two decades. In today’s programming tutorial, we will look at some of the reasons Java remains so popular and why it is used in so many software development shops today.
Before we begin, we know that some readers like to supplement their education with online courses. To that end, we have highlighted some of the Top Online Courses to Learn Java to help you get started.
What is the Java Programming Language?
Java began its entry into the world of computer programming back in the summer of 1991, as a language project taken on by a group of software engineers known as the “Green Team”, which consisted of James Gosling (now thought of as the father of Java), Mike Sheridan, and Patrick Naughton.
The trio set out to create a language that could be used to interact and control media devices like televisions and set-top boxes, but their innovations were ahead of their time, and at some point the programming language took on a different purpose. Starting with the name Oak, Java would undergo several name changes and changes, including a switch to Green, before it finally landed as Java while under the realm of Sun Microsystems – a company James Gosling worked for, which later got consumed by Oracle, who overseas development of the language today.
Java was built on the basis of C and C++ and is considered a part of the C family of programming languages. It shares a similar syntax to C/C++ and, therefore, is easier to learn if you are familiar with those languages, and vice versa.
At its core, class-based (though not truly Object-oriented), high-level, general purpose programming language built on the principles of WORA, which means to write once, run anywhere. In layman’s terms, this means that developers do not need to create new versions of their software for each operating system it will run on. The ability to run on any platform comes courtesy of the Java Virtual Machine – or JVM – which is part of the Java Runtime Environment (JRE).
You can learn more about the Java Virtual Machine in our tutorial: Overview of the JVM.
Benefits of Java Software Development
As stated, Java has consistently sat at the top of the dogpile in terms of the most widely used programming languages in the world for quite some time – and with good reason. The language is as powerful as languages like C and Python, but also easier to learn than C++. Below, we will list some of the main benefits of learning how to program in the Java programming language, in no particular order, which include its simplicity, its security, platform independence, and low entry cost.
Java is Easy to Learn
As stated, Java is an easy programming language to learn, regardless of whether you are a new developer or a veteran programmer who knows another language. While it does share syntax with C/C++, it was designed to be an easier language to learn, read, maintain, debug, and test. Operations like garbage collection, the use of explicit pointers, and operator overloading were all simplified or removed from Java to streamline the language and make it less complicated.
For instance, in other, comparable languages, the programmer has to worry about garbage collection, which essentially means the developer has to keep track of memory and storage resources being used and ensure they are properly handled. In Java, there is a built-in garbage collector (part of the JRE mentioned earlier) that handles this automatically, freeing up the coder to worry about other tasks and reducing errors from mishandled memory resources.
Despite its ease of use, however, Java can still be considered a middle-ground in terms of learning curve when compared to easier options such as Python, Perl, C#, and Ruby.
One final note: you may have heard of Kotlin. Kotlin was designed as a future replacement for Java and is even simpler to learn and use than Java. Since it was built on the same syntax and principles as Java, it is also interoperable with Java, meaning the two languages (and software created in them) can be intermingled.
Java is a class-based programming language
You will often hear that Java is an object-oriented programming language (OOP) and built on OOP principles, which makes code more structured, maintainable, and reusable. However, for language purists, this is not quite true, as Java supports the use of primitive types, which are not a feature of OOP languages. However, for all intents and purposes, Java can still be referred to as object-oriented as it still supports OOP concepts such as classes and objects, polymorphismand inheritance.
Java Platform Independence
One of the most important benefits of programming in Java is the fact that the language is platform-independent, meaning that it can run on any system. Any computer architecture (also known as an operating system, such as Windows or MAC OS) can run Java programs, as long as they support the Java Virtual Machine, discussed above. This is possible because the bytecode Java produces is compiled within the virtual machine so that operating systems can understand it.
In the olden days of languages like Fortran and Cobol, different versions of software would need to be written for different systems. Not having to create a separate codebase for Windows, Mac OS, or Linux saves costs, resources, and time.
Java is Human Readable
Java is a high-level programming language, versus a machine language. This means that the syntax, for the most part, can be viewed by a human and understood without the person needing to know the nuances of code (mostly). That does not mean that a non-programmer can understand every line of your code; it simply means that a developer should be able to read most parts of your codebase and get a jist of what you are trying to accomplish. This is doubly so if you practice proper Java coding best practices, which we always advise.
