Live data from Hacker News

"Should I still learn Java?" Answered: Yes.

beginwithjava.blogspot.com

1–10 of 108 posts

Re: "Should I still learn Java?" Answered: Yes.

#3
I can't say I disagree with the author. Even with all its troubles, there's simply too much legacy Java code to abandon. Much like Cobol and Perl, there will always be a need for Java programmers to--at the very least--maintain existing code.

If you're a complete newb, learning Java will also introduce you to the C-like family of languages. (Although I say everyone should learn C first in order to appreciate memory management)

Re: "Should I still learn Java?" Answered: Yes.

#4

I can't say I disagree with the author. Even with all its troubles, there's simply too much legacy Java code to abandon. Much like Cobol and Perl, there will always be a need for Java programmers to--at the very least--maintain existing code. If you're a complete newb, learning Java will also introduce you to the C-like family of languages. (Although I say everyone should learn C first in order to appreciate memory m…

> learning Java will also introduce you to the C-like family of languages Aren't Java and C, different family of languages?

Re: "Should I still learn Java?" Answered: Yes.

#5
post #4

I can't say I disagree with the author. Even with all its troubles, there's simply too much legacy Java code to abandon. Much like Cobol and Perl, there will always be a need for Java programmers to--at the very least--maintain existing code. If you're a complete newb, learning Java will also introduce you to the C-like family of languages. (Although I say everyone should learn C first in order to appreciate memory m…

> learning Java will also introduce you to the C-like family of languages Aren't Java and C, different family of languages?

Java is part of the C family of languages, you can draw a pretty straight line between C++ and most of Java's features (or non-features, or lacks of features).

Re: "Should I still learn Java?" Answered: Yes.

#7

I can't say I disagree with the author. Even with all its troubles, there's simply too much legacy Java code to abandon. Much like Cobol and Perl, there will always be a need for Java programmers to--at the very least--maintain existing code. If you're a complete newb, learning Java will also introduce you to the C-like family of languages. (Although I say everyone should learn C first in order to appreciate memory m…

> Much like Cobol and Perl, there will always be a need for Java programmers to--at the very least--maintain existing code.

Sure, if your goal is to get a job maintaining mainframe systems in banks for the next 30 years Cobol or Java are very good ideas.

On the other hand, there are already huge heaps of mediocre java programmers available for cheap, so it's not like the demand is that high.

Re: "Should I still learn Java?" Answered: Yes.

#8
post #4

I can't say I disagree with the author. Even with all its troubles, there's simply too much legacy Java code to abandon. Much like Cobol and Perl, there will always be a need for Java programmers to--at the very least--maintain existing code. If you're a complete newb, learning Java will also introduce you to the C-like family of languages. (Although I say everyone should learn C first in order to appreciate memory m…

> learning Java will also introduce you to the C-like family of languages Aren't Java and C, different family of languages?

The basic grammar and syntax are pretty much the same, as are most of the fundamental data types and their behaviors, and many other things. There are obviously a lot of differences, but if you know one language it usually isn't hard to read well-written code in the other language.

Re: "Should I still learn Java?" Answered: Yes.

#10
As someone who rather dislikes Java, I'd still tell others to learn it (but certainly not as their first or even second language - it teaches too many bad habits).

The main reason would simply be that a lot of interesting problems require tools/libs written in Java (Hadoop and family, Lucene, etc) if you want to get off the ground quickly and efficiently. Eventually, you're going to need to tweak your tools - so learn Java.

Furthermore, a lot of far better languages run on the JVM and have Java interop (Clojure, Scala, etc). Strictly speaking you don't have to know Java to use Clojure. But in practice, it's going to make your life miserable if you don't know the Java libs reasonably well.

Post reply on HN