In this course, you will be introduced to a new programming language called Java. The following sessions assume that you understand the fundamental concepts of programming and are comfortable writing code
Java is a popular object-oriented programming language. It was created in 1995 and is owned by Oracle.
Java is a secure, fast, and powerful programming language. Java works on different platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, etc.). It has huge community support (tens of millions of developers).
Python is an extremely good language to start learning programming for various reasons. It has a simple syntax and a powerful standard library. This simplicity and power of Python have attracted a huge developer community who have built a wide variety of third-party libraries that simplify a lot of programming tasks.
So this brings us to the question, why learn another programming language?
Different programming languages have different strengths. Some languages are good for quickly writing small scripts, some are better suited for working on a large-scale project involving multiple developers. The same feature of the programming language which brings certain advantages in some aspects may also bring disadvantages in other aspects.
Python belongs to a class of programming languages called dynamic languages. The syntax of this category of languages is considered a bit informal. Informal in the sense that a data type of a variable or return type of a function/method, etc., is never explicit or formally pre-defined. You can directly assign a value to a variable and later assign a value of a different type to the same variable. This informality simplifies the syntax and makes it easy to write Python code. But this also means the programmer has to remember certain things. It is up to the developer to ensure that the right type of value exists in a variable when a particular method is called. If the developer misses these types of things, the code will run into exceptions during runtime.
On the other hand, we have programming languages like C, C++, and Java that are more formal. These are often referred to as static programming languages. These languages protect you by forcing you to be upfront and formal about the kind of object each variable is going to contain in its lifetime. As the developer mentions the data types of the variables upfront, before using them, these languages could use this knowledge to
report some of the possible errors to the developer before the code is executed.
optimize functionalities to different data types and thereby increase performance and speed of execution.
You may even notice a performance improvement of 5x - 10x when the same logic is written in Java or C++ instead of Python.
As a developer, you should understand the strengths of different languages and should be able to use the appropriate language as per the needs of the project at hand. There are certain features like variables, conditionals, loops, functions, etc. that most programming languages have in common. So when learning a new programming language you should focus on differences in syntax. You should try to compare different aspects of the new programming language with different programming languages that you already know to understand what is common among them and what are the key differences.
For a Python programmer, it is easier to learn Java when compared to C++
Java includes a larger standard library than C/C++
The syntax of Java is less complicated than the syntax of C++
Java is usually considered to be halfway between C/C++ and Python in terms of performance, and ease of programming. This balance has made Java an attractive option for many enterprises. Java was considered the most popular programming language for more than 20 years (until the early 2020s).
With Java, it is possible to easily develop Cross-Platform applications. The same Java application can be run on different Operating Sytems like Windows, Ubuntu, etc. which is not possible with C/C++. (You will learn more about this later.)
Java can be used to develop a wide variety of applications.
Mobile Applications
Web-based and Desktop Applications
Server-Based Applications, etc.
As Java has been the primary language of choice for many enterprises for quite some time, there are multiple job roles that require developers who can program in Java.
Java Developer
Java Architect
Java Web Developer
Java Android Developer, etc.