Java, the next big thing?

[stodge]

Things seem to be moving slowly towards Java as the
"next big thing".

So I downloaded some IDEs, JBuilder and Forte, to try to
teach myself the language. Forte makes my P3-700 look
like a P120!! It is soooooooo slow! I've tried several
other Java GUI apps (not just IDEs) and they're slow as
hell! Is this true? Is the Java runtime environment that
slow?? Or am I doing something wrong?

So far my opinion is; if this is how Java apps run, then
I want nothing to do with it.

Someone please enlighten me!

[SDT]

I'm not a java programmer but I can confirm that it tends to be slow or at least slower than you think that it should be. Hopefully someone with some java experience can give you some tips on how to speed it up as I don't think that it is generally as slow as you are makeing it out to be.

[OuTpaTienT]

hmmmmmmm, they've been saying Java is the next "big" thing for the past 5+ years. You'd think they would have it a little closer to perfected by now. It's still WAY too buggy to be a "big thing".

Some of the best and most impressive sites I've ever seen were done with Flash. And some of the most irritating, annoying, and crash-prone sites I've seen were done with Java.

[Szech]

I think it varies compiler to compiler. When I was programming in Java, it seemed pretty fast to me. I'm using Symantec Visual Cafe, BTW... But my professer told me that Microsoft J++ is ****, and its compiler has problems. I have to say though, that programming in Java is MUCH easier for me than programming in C++. So I like it, and that may be why it's getting so big, because it is easier.

[SPVHJL]

The problem you are running into is that the IDE's that you downloaded are written in all java. That in itself is slowing down your system. If you buy a commercial package, like Visual Cafe, JBuilder, VisualAge, etc., you will not run into this problem as far as developing your programs.

As far as the language, it is slower than c or c++ because of the JVM it uses. However the JVM is what allows Java to perform across different platforms without rewriting the code. The java applications currently rely on this JVM to convert the Java code into something the machine can read. It is only utilized when a java program needs it causing the lag in startup time.

In the near future, the JVM might likely become hardware based and avoid this delay.

Anyways, it is the fact that java can be universally used (at least in ideal situations) that will keep its development going.

Just my 2 cents.

[qball]

JAVA the next big thing, maybe...

Funny how platform independent Java has many different versions, kinda defeats the purpose, huh?

Anyway, JAVA is gaining momentum and still has that Buzzword (heck my current position is a mix of JAVA, DB2 and EJB, so I'm using it!).

Whether you know it or not JAVA is much easier and sophisticated than most languages I have used. In fact, most accomplished programmers suffer through JAVA as they try to relate how JAVA does things to whatever experience they have. This is a bad thing.

Forget everything you know about programming and start fresh with JAVA. Find the object that does the task you want, instantiate, then call the method you need. Simple, huh?

I consider it a very abstract language that happens to be fairly sophisticated. Lastly, with most virtual machines, JAVA is an interpreted language and therefore will run much slower than native code, though as boxes get faster and the VM is tweaked this should become less of problem.