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The Reason For Java's Staying Power: It's Easy To Read

jfruh writes: Java made its public debut twenty years ago today, and despite a sometimes bumpy history that features its parent company being absorbed by Oracle, it's still widely used. Mark Reinhold, chief architect for the Oracle's Java platform group, offers one explanation for its continuing popularity: it's easy for humans to understand it at a glance. "It is pretty easy to read Java code and figure out what it means. There aren't a lot of obscure gotchas in the language ... Most of the cost of maintaining any body of code over time is in maintenance, not in initial creation."

4 of 414 comments (clear)

  1. Not as easy to read as Python though by mann17 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Not as easy to read as Python though

  2. Re:Corollary: It's difficult to be "clever" in Jav by DickBreath · · Score: 5, Funny

    final T up = (T) throwable;
    throw up;

    --

    I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
  3. Re:Not easiest to read, but forgiving... by asylumx · · Score: 5, Funny

    Give him a break, he's been programming in java for 15+ years.

  4. Re:Not easiest to read, but forgiving... by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 5, Funny

    A cylindrical reference is like a circular reference, except it happens when your code is three dimensional.