For the past two decades, Java is known as one of the best programming languages ever developed. In the past 20 years, the usage of Java has intensified as more offshore Java developers make full use of its advantages on a daily basis.
In some instances, Java benefits are not completely felt, especially when the technology slows down. However, the good thing about Java is that it can bounce back and perform its designated benefits by responding well. So why learn Java?
Working with Java
With the groundbreaking modifications in Java 5’s Enum, Autoboxing, and Generics, Java’s performance was enhanced with Java 6. Then, in Java 8, there came the functional programming with the Lambda expressions. This continued to Google's language compatibility for Android apps development, where the Java benefits are experienced as a frontline in the programming language.
Many technology graduates frequently ask, “Why to use Java?” What is the best programming language to use? Why do you need to learn Java?
Java benefits
Whether Java is the best programming language available depends on what your definition of it. Despite the existence of C for barely five decades, the usage of Java outscores everyone else.
Regarding job opportunities, Java is a popular employment creator. Several job opportunities are available if you are an expert in the Java programming language. Some of these include developing core Java-based server-side and J2EE web and enterprise applications. Also, offshore Java developers may opt to focus on the development of Android-based mobile applications.
If you are planning to learn your first programming language, instead of having the C and C++ background, settling initially for Java is a good choice.
Usage of Java as a programming language
Why use Java as the best programming language? Why should you learn Java? Below are the key reasons why learning Java is advantageous to aspiring Java developers. Also, learning Java provides many job opportunities, promotes personal development, and ensures community support.
#1 Java is easy to learn. This is the primary reason why many novice developers are willing to learn Java as the best programming language. However, in case you find Java difficult to master, you will surely be unproductive with this platform when tasked to complete a professional project. Java can be learned in English that uses a syntax with minimum widely employed characters, such as Generics angle brackets, which eases when understanding the Java program and quickly learn it.
If you are hiring a reliable offshore Java developer, he surely is familiar with the basic issues when installing JDK and creating PATH and citing how Classpath works. This simplifies writing a Java program.
#2 Object-oriented programming language. What makes Java well-known is being an object-oriented programming (OOP) language. Creating an OOP app is easier and enables the make the system flexible, modular, and extensible.
If you have a background in the general OOP concepts, such as abstraction, encapsulation, polymorphism, and inheritance, all these can be used in Java. This platform is an embodiment of the different best practices and design patterns in its repository.
Java is one of those that are commonly used OOP programming language. Also, Java promotes the use of solid and object-oriented design principles with open source projects such as Spring. This ensures that your object dependency is well-managed with the Dependency Injection principle.
#3 Rich API. Java as a programming language has a rich API. Essentially, it is highly visible when installing Java. Also, Java uses API that can be used for I/O, utilities, networking, database connection, XML parsing, and nearly everything. Others that are covered include open source libraries such as Apache Commons, Jackson, Gson, Google Guava, and Apache POI.
#4 Powerful tools. Examples of powerful development tools such as Eclipse and Netbeans have a major role that makes Java one of the widely used programming languages. Integrated Development Environment (IDE) coding is enjoyable, particularly when coding in DOS Editor or Notepad. These tools are helpful in code completion with a vital debugging capacity, which is necessary for real-world development. IDE makes developing Java much easier, quicker, and more fluent. It can be easily searched, refactored and read when coding IDEs. Aside from IDE, Java platform also has other tools such as Maven and ANT for creating Java apps, Jenkins used for continuous integration and delivery, decompilers, JConsole, and Visual VM for monitoring Heap use.
#5 Bulk Open source libraries
Open source libraries make Java to be used everywhere. Google, Apache, and other institutions have been instrumental in building great libraries, which enable the development of Java to be easy to do, faster, and more cost-effective. Through various frameworks like Spring, Struts, and Maven, all these assure that the Java development adheres to the best practices of crafting the best software, promotes excellent design patterns, and supports the offshore Java developers to complete the job.
#6 Reliable community support.
A strong and dependable community is the stronghold of the Java programming language and platform. Despite having a good language, its survival lies heavily on community support, who is willing to help and share their knowledge. Java is a good platform for having various active forums, open source groups, StackOverflow, and different Java user groups to do everything.
There exists a community to give a hand for the novice, advanced, and even expert Java developers. Generally, Java takes and gives back what is due to the community. Most Java programmers, who widely use open source, can be a commuter, tester, etc. Most expert programmers share free advice at different Java forums and StackOverflow. This is very helpful and provides confidence to a new Java developer.
#7 Free to use. Many people like to use Java because it is free. For any developer who seeks to learn a new programming language or a company wanting to try new technology, the cost is a major consideration. Because Java is free for everyone, this will not cost you anything to develop a Java application.
Java as a free platform makes it very popular among various individual programs, including its use in large entities. Also, the availability of Java programmers is another factor, which makes an organization when selecting Java for its strategic development within the company.
#8 Efficient documentation support – Javadocs. Javadoc is an amazing piece of documentation. It provides many things about Java API. Without the availability of Javadoc documentation, Java will not be popular. Javadoc is one of the major reasons that make Java the best programming language. Not all users have the time or care so much to learn the code, understand how the process works or use a class. With Javadoc, this makes learning easy and a good reference in Java coding.
With the introduction of IDEs, such as Eclipse and IntelliJIDEA, you don't need Javadoc to be explicitly viewed in the browser. However, you can take all the details in your IDE window.
#9 Platform independent. During the 1990s, Java became popular for being platform independent. The concept of platform independence is vital. This carries Java’s tagline, “write once run anywhere (WORA).” It was an enticing Java development during that time. This contributes to making Java the best programming language, where most of its applications are created in a Windows environment and is run on a Linux platform.
#10 Presence is everywhere
Java, as a platform, is widely used everywhere. It is available on the desktop, mobile, card, and nearly everywhere, along with Java programmers. As observed, Java programmers are higher in number compared to other programming language experts.
Generally, the availability of many Java programmers is one main reason that organizations choose to use Java instead of using any other programming language.
Programming per se is a huge industry. Compared to C and UNIX, which are still prevalent in usage and even getting stronger to stay for the next 20 years, Java is at the same level.
Although there have been talks regarding functional programming like Scala and other JVM languages such as Kotlin and Groovy, they require to get to the same Java community, resources, and popularity of this platform. Also, OOP remains one of the best programming languages, where Java will continue to be solid.
