If Java Is Dying, It Sure Looks Awfully Healthy

Post by epsylon » Thu, Oct 10, 2013, 9:30 AM UTC

nitrogen wrote: post #121

shaggyfrog wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find the descriptive nature of method signatures to be quite delightful. Unlike other languages like C++, I don't always have to go looking for the function definition to see the types of the parameters it takes, and what exactly was the order again? Combined with Xcode's autocomplete, it saves a lot of time. I shed a small tear every time I have to call a C API with and endless parade of (NULL, NULL, 0, NULL).

In C99 it's possible to use compound literals to implement something like named parameters. You create a struct with all of your parameters, and only include the ones you want to set in the compound literal. Anything not explicitly specified in the compound literal gets set to 0, so the caveat is that 0 can't be a valid value for your parameters.

Post by grn » Thu, Oct 10, 2013, 9:31 AM UTC

Post by exDM69 » Thu, Oct 10, 2013, 9:34 AM UTC

pjmlp wrote: post #133

jordanthoms wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Java runs about 2x slower than C++ for general CPU-bound stuff - (although it does use much more RAM). That sounds slow, but it's faster than most other languages out there. However, C++ does give you the ability to more easily use processor extensions (SSE, AVX, etc), which you can't use from Java AFAIK - which makes a big difference in performance for certain applications.

> C++ does give you the ability to more easily use processor extensions (SSE, AVX, etc), which you can't use from Java AFAIK C++ does not support any processor extensions, they are not defined anywhere in ANSI/ISO C++ language standard. They are a language extension not guaranteed to be available in all C++ compilers in the same form, thus not portable. Java can make use of processor extensions by writing a small Ass…

Post by frownie » Thu, Oct 10, 2013, 9:48 AM UTC

Post by teh_klev » Thu, Oct 10, 2013, 10:03 AM UTC

gaius wrote: post #180

jasallen wrote: post #18

Java may not be dying, but it does take off early on Fridays for golf. Java is not dying the same way Cobol was not dying 10 years ago. It has a lot of legs left but nobody is 'hoping' to use it, they are told to do so. Java is and always has been almost completely a corporate tool. Again, like Cobol, so the 'cool kids' are not going to give it much love. It's too slow to execute to compete with C++, its too slow to…

Well, yes and no. I'm old enough to remember when Java was launched, and I was getting paid to write Java in '96. At the time it was going to be a whole new way to write software - modular software made of components downloaded on the fly whenever you needed them. That is why package names work like that , com.sun.java.blah meant a class called Blah that you would grab from the server java.sun.com when you first inst…