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Java To Overtake C/C++ in 2002

jarek writes "ZDNET has an article that talks about latest research data. It talks about how Java is overtaking C/C++ next year. The article also talks about developers adopting linux and putting linux to use in mission critical tasks." It's evidently taking developers from the C/C++, but also the Visual Basic camps, with strong growth overseas.

2 of 605 comments (clear)

  1. Ugh, so much Java mythology... by qon · · Score: 3, Flamebait
    Sigh. Every time Java comes up on /. I keep seeing the same bogus misunderstandings, over and over:

    Java is so slow.

    Yet no one here ever complains about the slowness of PHP, Python, bash, etc. -- scripting languages that are almost by definition slower than Java in most circumstances. Why does the speed complaint only get leveled against Java?

    The point is that, much like PHP, Java is plenty fast enough for what people use it for. I use it for web application development, and the performance is more that just acceptable. It's lightning fast. I think this perception is fostered by the ancient JVMs that ship with Windows and IE, which are major releases behind the current state of the art.

    No one uses Java for GUI app development.

    LimeWire, which IMHO is the best Gnutella client out there, is pure Java. It's very responsive, feature rich, stable, and less than 1MB, about the same size as XMMS. Hardly what you'd call slow bloatware, which is the usual complaint.

    Sun owns Java. Java isn't free.

    I could mention Tomcat, which is open source and which we use in production where I work. But then someone could complain that the JVM we're running it on is still proprietary to Sun...

    Haven't any of you heard of Kaffe, GCJ, or GNU CLASSPATH? None of these things are what I would consider production-grade yet, but the point is, Java is only as closed as people want it to be. If you don't like the fact that the best JVMs are all proprietary, then by all means, contribute to one of the many free Java projects out there!

    Get past the myths. Java won't solve every programming problem, but if you don't like it, at least complain about the parts that *do* suck (like java.io.* :)

    Q

  2. This all makes sense now by Jucius+Maximus · · Score: 2, Flamebait
    "I like it because I don't have to worry about several different OS's and garbage collection."

    As I see it, the sole reason Java seems to be overtaking C/C++ is that it doesn't actually have proper garbage collection. If it did, then 90% of programs would self-delete upon execution.