Is Java 21 Keeping Up With Modern Programming Languages
digma.ai
In this article, we'll debunk the notion that Java is a relic of the past and showcase the language's modern features in Java 21.

In this article, we’ll debunk the notion that Java is a relic of the past and showcase the language’s modern features, thriving ecosystem, and unwavering presence in enterprise and open-source communities.

  • sizeoftheuniverse@programming.dev
    ·
    1 year ago

    Yes it does, the only parts where Java doesn't shine are usually some advanced features that are nightmarish for people who are building tools and libraries:

    • The type system is so 90s and it's kept like that for backwards compatibility.

    • Generics having type erasure is again an improvisation for the sake of backwards compatibility. It makes writing generic code in conjunction with Reflection painful.

    • The lack of control for the memory layout. I mean in most cases you dont need full control, but there are use cases where it's literally impossible to do optimisations that are easy to do in C/C++. You must have faith in the JVM and JIT.

    • Integration with native code is cumbersome.

    Other than that Java is fine for most backend work you need to do, except probably for Real Time Processing apps where every millisecond count, but even there there are ways.

    You use Java not for the languages itself, but for the tooling and the ecosystem.