Subject: Why Java?
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 16:20:30 -0400
From: David Lee Matuszek 
Organization: Lockheed Martin Mission Systems
To: [redacted]

Why Java?

Java is now my language of choice for practically everything. That being the case, I thought I'd share some of the reasons with family and close friends.

The best thing about Java

I enjoy learning new languages, when they have something new to offer me in return: new insights, new ways of looking at the programming process, new capabilities. I don't enjoy learning a new language when it is just old ideas wearing a new syntax.

Java doesn't give any new insights or approaches, unless O-O programming is new to you (and Smalltalk still does that better). The language itself doesn't give much in the way of new capabilities, except perhaps for the incremental improvement in error handling that the try/catch statement provides. But Java isn't just a language; it's a huge collection of packages, each providing capabilities in a form that is readily accessible to me, the programmer, with relatively minimal effort.

java.awt lets me construct simple GUIs without a lot of effort (although a visual tool is still better). The Swing package, new in Java 1.2, should let me construct GUIs that even look fairly nice.
java.applet lets me put programs on Web pages (although Netscape 4.05 doesn't yet understand Java 1.1. Grrr.)
java.net lets me do networking. I've used sockets before, didn't like it, don't remember how anymore.
java.sql lets me access databases. That's something I'm not fond of doing in the best of circumstances, but that's my next assignment, and I think Java will help a lot.
java.beans should let me create "embeddable, reusable components." There's a lot of hype supporting beans; I don't personally have a good feel yet for how useful beans will be, but I'm hopeful.
java.lang.reflect gives me the ability to examine and interact with other programs in ways that were never possible before; I still don't grok all the implications, but I'm looking forward to exploring them.
javadoc lets me produce professional-looking documentation easily. More important, it will help shield me from having to produce documentation in yet another gawdawful idiosyncratic "standardized" format imposed by bureaucrats.

Java doesn't necessarily make any of this easy, but it does bring it together under one roof, so to speak, so that you don't have to learn disparate chunks AND learn how to put them together.

It looks to me like I can spend the next couple of years expanding my programming horizons (at a faster rate than I have done in a long time) and still be within the Java umbrella. I like that a lot.

Why not C++?

Well, C++ is object-oriented (or at least it CAN be), but it's still the most butt-ugly language I've ever tried to use. C++ was a brilliant political achievement, in that it got all those dyed-in-the-wool C programmers to sample O-O programming, but it's time to get past that.

C++ (1) has a choice of object libraries you can use, so you have to learn new libraries every time you change projects, (2) has some very awkward kludges to make it upward compatible with C, and (3) still leaves memory management up to the programmer, thus ensuring a neverending supply of bugs.

The second-best thing about Java

It's a hot language. Everybody loves Java. This has the strong practical benefit that I get to use it occasionally. No matter how much I might prefer, say, Haskell, I never get to use it.

The third-best thing about Java

Java is our last best hope to cleanse the world of C++.

Other good things about Java

The more I use Java, the more I like it. This is a good sign; I've had the opposite experience with, to pick a random example, C++.

Software reuse really is important. You can save a lot of time by not continually reinventing the wheel. O-O programming, for reasons I won't go into here, gives us our best hope yet for reuse. Java is an O-O language; it's not unique in this regard, but that's still a good thing about it.

Java is free. AND it comes with a very large, free library of reusable objects.

Design Patterns. Design Patterns are the silver bullet of the late 90's, the thing that will solve all our programming problems. Yeah, I don't believe that either, but every little bit helps, and Design Patterns do appear to be Good Things.

Write once, run anywhere. Well, almost. Real Soon Now.

Bad things about Java

I never much cared for C syntax; Pascal is easier to read. A Pascal-like syntax for Java would not change Java in any essential way. Oh, well.

In particular, since Java is not in any sense upwardly compatible with C, they could have fixed the switch statement so you don't need a break in every case. They didn't.

Java isn't simple. Anyone who tries to tell you that Java is a simple language is comparing it to C++.

Java still isn't as much fun as Prolog or one of the purely functional languages.

The Macintosh OS originally allowed 511-character file names; somewhere around System 3 they cut back to 31-character file names. This is a Macintosh problem, not a Java problem per se, and there are workarounds, but it does make "Write once, run anywhere" a little problematical. The Swing set, in Java 1.2, is especially prone to long file name problems.

Inner classes are good things, but they are an afterthought, and not well implemented. I still haven't learned all the gotchas.

Java will never be as fast as a purely compiled language.

The bad news

It appears to be the case that Microsoft views Java as a threat, and is trying to kill it by "improving" it in ways that work only on Wintel machines. It's a good strategy, and probably benefits those of us who have no contact with non-Wintel machines; but that's not me. I personally fear monopolies, particularly in my own field, and I hope that the Department of Justice prevails; and if the DoJ prevails, I hope it prevails for the right reasons.

The bottom line

I guess I'm urging everyone to jump on the Java bandwagon, insofar as possible. For my Wintel friends, I urge the same; just be sensitive to the differences between the code produced by MS tools such as J++ and the "100% Pure Java" advocated by Sun.

Written October 13, 1998 by David Matuszek.
Reformatted for the Web May 27, 1999.