What is Java?
While on my job search I’ve seen a great amount of employers looking to hire someone with experience in Java. So let’s take a look into this programming language and see the pros and cons it offers. Java was created by a team led by James Gosling, and was released to the world in 1995. It is an objected oriented programming language that is free to access.
Pros:
Easy to Learn: Java was designed to be easy to use, so if you have an understanding of objects, classes, and frameworks in general you should be in a good place to pick up Java fairly quickly.
Object Oriented: You can reuse objects and who doesn’t love to reuse code. As well as maintain the distribution of data in an organized way.
Large Community: A testament to this is how long Java has been around, according to a survey done by Stack Overflow in 2020 roughly 40% of users on this website use Java.
Platform-Independent: Possibly the biggest pro of Java. Essentially this means you have to write the code once and it can be run anywhere. This is done by the Java compiler which turns code into Bytecode, which is then interpreted by the Java Runtime Environment and then translated to the host computer.
Cons:
Slower Runtime: Java typically has a slower runtime than other languages such as C or C++ because the code is being interpreted to the machine level.
Memory: Java takes up a lot of memory on your device.
Cost: Because you need more memory and processing power the cost to run Java is increased.
While many reports say that Java is on the decline as compared to JavaScript or Node.js it is still very popular in the workplace and I would recommend learning if you’re beginning to search for a job in the tech field. Any android application, banking and retail use Java for transaction services, and it can also be used in the stock market to write algorithms and those are just a few ways Java is currently being used.
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