Not at all, you should learn a more macho language like C++, where you can suffer, acquire scars, loose countless hours to weird template errors, learn the intricacies of writing code that has to compile on different compilers that don't agree on the syntax or semantics of the language, fight with crappy tooling, use IDEs that barely manage to do auto-completion, encounter all kinds of bizarre hardware and OS behaviour that the Java runtime shields you from, resulting in code that doesn't compile or run anymore every 6 months when part of your compiler or library toolchain changes, and acquire skills that are largely useful only as bragging rights
Should I Learn Java in 2018
31–40 of 165 posts
Re: Should I Learn Java in 2018
#32> Should I learn Java? This is a question that just keeps coming up. Really? Java has a verbose but bland syntax, relatively fewer surprises, to 'learn' it, should be straightforward. I don't think this should pose as a problem to average dev at all.
Agree. Even if you don't plan to be an expert Java developer it is still useful to learn it, and the effort should not be huge. Especially not for someone with experience in other languages. It really isn't a difficult language to learn up to a level of basic proficiency. It should not be more than one or two weeks of effort to be able to create useful things if you know what to look for.
The effort of learning new programming languages often seems to be hugely over-estimated.
Re: Should I Learn Java in 2018
#33> Should I learn Java? This is a question that just keeps coming up. Really? Java has a verbose but bland syntax, relatively fewer surprises, to 'learn' it, should be straightforward. I don't think this should pose as a problem to average dev at all.
I don't think the syntax is the difficult part, it is the tooling/IDEs/ecosystem/blah.
I think this is true with most languages that have been around for more than 10 years (except for python... python is a great beginner's language IMHO)
Re: Should I Learn Java in 2018
#34Kotlin or Clojure would be a bit more fun to learn, still be able to benefit from running on the JVM.
Sure but to truly appreciate either you’ll need to slog through a bunch of POJOs and EnterpriseAwareTranformationalFactoryBeanFactoryCreationTemplate classes first.
Re: Should I Learn Java in 2018
#35One annoyance with Java(and Kotlin too) is that it's pretty much the only language left that you really ought to use a specialized IDE with while pretty much every other language(including C#) you can get adequate support in VS Code or Emacs.
VS Code isn't that bad from my experience. I tried working on a small project with VS Code (as opposed to working with Intellij as I usually do for my job) and I didn't miss that much.
Might be that as complexity grows you need more and more IDE features to deal with it, but that's a symptom of older codebases being in Java more than it's a fault of the language itself, right?
Re: Should I Learn Java in 2018
#36> Concern 5: Java is too slow/consumes too much memory It's sad that this is still a thing. Compared to more trendy languages like Python and Javascript, Java is very light on memory. JS is known for being fairly fast and "light", but its actually 5-10x slower than Java and uses 5-10X more memory. And the whole "lightness" of it is a lie. Javascript's run-time is probably bigger and more complex than the JVM. Java us…
Also, https://github.com/cxxr/better-java with recommendations for learning how to write modern Java.
Re: Should I Learn Java in 2018
#37If you want a low stress good paid job, where you would be able to rush home at 5pm, then yes. If you are looking for excitement, learn $hype_of_the_year and join a startup, but be ready to learn $hype_of_the_next_year soon.
Oddly enough most of the startups around where I am at have been based on Rails. Some people use Node as well. That’s about as $hype_of_the_year as it gets here.
Where is that?
Re: Should I Learn Java in 2018
#38if you learn Scala, you'll learn also Java as side effect
SBT is hellish though and the added complexity that Scala has imposes a lot of cognitive overhead. With Kotlin, you always end up writing cleaner Java and don't risk erring on the side of unneeded entanglement in the spaghetti monster that Scala can sometimes be.
Maybe take a look at Mill, a new Scala build system by Li Haoyi (Scala.js). Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16775545
Re: Should I Learn Java in 2018
#39If you want a low stress good paid job, where you would be able to rush home at 5pm, then yes. If you are looking for excitement, learn $hype_of_the_year and join a startup, but be ready to learn $hype_of_the_next_year soon.
Oddly enough most of the startups around where I am at have been based on Rails. Some people use Node as well. That’s about as $hype_of_the_year as it gets here.
I think Rails/NodeJS are the most popular choices for startups everywhere in the world. Both technologies are made for lean development.
Re: Should I Learn Java in 2018
#40> Should I learn Java? This is a question that just keeps coming up. Really? Java has a verbose but bland syntax, relatively fewer surprises, to 'learn' it, should be straightforward. I don't think this should pose as a problem to average dev at all.
I don't think the syntax is the difficult part, it is the tooling/IDEs/ecosystem/blah.
As is true most other languages, tbh. Java isn't the hardest one either, with Eclipse/IntelliJ/Maven/blahblah, it takes time to configure, but fairly established.