Given the meteoric rise of Java, I started using it in 1995; would Java the language and platform enjoy repeat success if it had instead been introduced today?
Ask HN: Would Java make it if introduced today?
1–10 of 57 posts
Re: Ask HN: Would Java make it if introduced today?
#2Not if it were introduced with the original bytecode interpreter. The first few iterations of the Java Virtual Machine were horrifically slow, but it got better.
So if the Java language and VM were released today in their current state, complete with lambdas, streams, annotations, and HotSpot, then yeah, I think it would take off.
Re: Ask HN: Would Java make it if introduced today?
#3As is yes, as was would sink without trace.
Re: Ask HN: Would Java make it if introduced today?
#4It's not really about the technology, it's about the hook. I also started using Java when it came out, and there were two main hooks for us C/C++ coders:
- write once, run anywhere.
- write programs that run on web browsers (applets).
Today, it could be: "I want to write an Android app, and Google just released this new Java language/platform that I have to use."
In other words, any new language can make it if a large corporation creates a compelling reason for large numbers of programmers to use it.
Re: Ask HN: Would Java make it if introduced today?
#5[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Would Java make it if introduced today?
#6I don't know about make it, but Microsoft Stack (C#/VB/.NET) would have a stronger dominance nowadays considering that it would grow without Java on it's back.
Re: Ask HN: Would Java make it if introduced today?
#7Honestly, as it currently stands, Java appears to me as merely a pared down version of C#. C# shares nearly all of the same major features, while adding in more useful ones like properties and Linq, plus the promise of many new features on the horizon, like the null propagating operator. All of those, plus the rest of Microsoft's development ecosystem, make it a much nicer language overall.
The only reason I don't think C# has taken over Java yet is because of how entrenched Java is, and it's wide cross-platform support. With mono, Silverlight, and Microsoft's newfound love for open-sourcing however, I think those arguments would be pretty much null if Java were to be introduced today.
Re: Ask HN: Would Java make it if introduced today?
#8I don't know about make it, but Microsoft Stack (C#/VB/.NET) would have a stronger dominance nowadays considering that it would grow without Java on it's back.
Ignoring of course that much of C# owes its existence to Java (and C++).
Re: Ask HN: Would Java make it if introduced today?
#9Not at all. Java's rise was the perfect storm of several factors: object orientation taken to its logical conclusion during a huge IT hype period for it (much like "Big Data" today), the tail end of a huge explosion of CPU architectures which made VMs very attractive, and CPU power finally getting to the point where pervasive garbage collection wasn't a detriment to large systems.
The platform as we have today is simultaneously weak in terms of its stagnant and outpaced feature set, and strong in terms of its optimization capability and ecosystem size. But its strengths were a function of its popularity: lots of people wrote Java so there was plenty of incentive to invest in the platform/ecosystem.
The only way I could see it taking off today as a new language is if there were a company willing to dump 10x the resources into it that Oracle or Sun ever have.
Re: Ask HN: Would Java make it if introduced today?
#10Not sure how that can be answered. How would it compete against C#, which is basically Java++, and now open source and cross platform, and mature? But C# doesn't exist without Java, which it was heavily influenced by. Scala runs on the JVM. Does Scala exist if Java is "introduced now"? Scala is also a Java++.
I mean, Java was such a major influence that you have to stipulate how we deal with the fact that Java couldn't compete now because it would be essentially competing against future, evolved version of itself.