Pros & cons of using java?

[Guest areacode212]

Back in '95, everyone was talking about how everything, from computers to dishwashers, was going to be programmed in Java because of its low learning curve (if you know C/C++, Java is a breeze to learn) and its platform independence.

 

But I've heard a lot lately about how ill-respected Java programmers are and how much the language sucks. Could someone break it down for me? What happened to the Java dream?

[Guest HDahlmear]

Well, I know that it's taught here at Northern Illinois University, but as a 400-level course - and it isn't a requirement, and there's only the one course.  Then again, our program here has a strong corporate/mainframe data processing emphasis to it (we get taught COBOL here, even!);  as for ease of programming, I don't know that it would nessecarily be easier to write programs relative to other languages.  The syntax is taken from C++, and from what I've seen, it's inherited most of C++'s complexity with regard to all the various classes and libraries that exist (and are impossible to keep track of), while losing much of the utility and power that C++ had inherited from C.  

The platform independence is a strength, hence it's use on the internet.  However, it has limitations due to that.  Since the Java programs get compiled into java machine language, then run on a virtual machine (another term for an emulator), instead of the actual hardware, they run much slower than a normal program, although with simple applets running on a high speed system the difference shouldn't be noticable.  You can compile java code directly into, say, x86 binary machine code, but at that point you may as well stick to C/C++, which allow you to write low-level, system-specific code, hence improving the efficiency of the program.