Why is Java taught in Universities?

[Ameesh]

Originally posted by: Descartes
It's a fantastic language, that's why. Would you rather they teach you something more esoteric to limit the possibility of finding employment once you graduate?

If you can't see the benefits of Java, I suggest you stay in school for a while longer

c# is better

(you knew i was coming!)

 

[GoingUp]

Originally posted by: Ameesh

Originally posted by: Descartes
It's a fantastic language, that's why. Would you rather they teach you something more esoteric to limit the possibility of finding employment once you graduate?

If you can't see the benefits of Java, I suggest you stay in school for a while longer

c# is better

(you knew i was coming!)

thats what I get to learn this spring...........

 

[Adul]

Originally posted by: Ameesh

Originally posted by: Descartes
It's a fantastic language, that's why. Would you rather they teach you something more esoteric to limit the possibility of finding employment once you graduate?

If you can't see the benefits of Java, I suggest you stay in school for a while longer

c# is better

(you knew i was coming!)

is it cross platform portable though?

 

[CrazyDe1]

Originally posted by: StormRider
It's a beautiful language. My only concerns are speed (although it seems fast enough for a lot of uses). I took a class with it and loved it but it has caused me to become confused a bit at work where I am using C/C++. A lot of times I go, "Opps, why doesn't that work?!?! Oh wait a minute -- that was in Java -- in C++ I have to do it a different way..."

It's opposite for me...I do things all day in work in C++ and then when I write Java I wonder why it didn't work. All this exception handling and events and listener crap confuses the hell out of me.

I'll admit it's an awesome language if I actually knew how to program in it instead of just hacking away at things...

 

[Ameesh]

Originally posted by: Adul

Originally posted by: Ameesh

Originally posted by: Descartes
It's a fantastic language, that's why. Would you rather they teach you something more esoteric to limit the possibility of finding employment once you graduate?

If you can't see the benefits of Java, I suggest you stay in school for a while longer

c# is better

(you knew i was coming!)

is it cross platform portable though?

java being cross-platform compatible is a myth, its not even compatible against differnt jvm's running on the same platform!

 

[Gibson486]

java is a great language. It's too bad my class (which was supposodely a Data Structure class) taught me very little (the prof had no idea how to teach low level stuff, he was too smart for his own good) because i really wanted to learn teh language. From what i actually did learn though, it beats C/C++'s two seperate files for one program.

Java is in cell phones, new videogames, new software, there are even traces of java in C# (or so people say) and dont forget to mention that java is good for teh internet because of its cross platfrom compatibility.

 

[Sunner]

Originally posted by: Descartes
It's a fantastic language, that's why. Would you rather they teach you something more esoteric to limit the possibility of finding employment once you graduate?

If you can't see the benefits of Java, I suggest you stay in school for a while longer

Java may be a dream for programmers, but it's a nightmare for the admins who have to deal with the finnished Java programs.

Reminds me of a great quite, I don't remember where it's from.
"If Java had proper garbage collection, most programs would self-delete upon execution."

 

[Shivatron]

Originally posted by: Adul

Originally posted by: Ameesh

Originally posted by: Descartes
It's a fantastic language, that's why. Would you rather they teach you something more esoteric to limit the possibility of finding employment once you graduate?

If you can't see the benefits of Java, I suggest you stay in school for a while longer

c# is better

(you knew i was coming!)

is it cross platform portable though?

Since a C# is only "compiled" to MSIL (MS Intermediary Language, think "byte code" which is JIT compiled to native at runtime), it's technically cross-platform portable with the proper CLR (Common Language Runtime) for the platform you want to run on.

Currently there is a CLR which MS developed for Linux and MacOS X which is called "ROTOR". (I know it works on PPC and x86 hardware, don't know about SPARC.) I've seen it demoed in person but I've never actually used it. Apparantly since the C# languge is not propritetary (well I mean MS developed it, but it's an open standard), anyone could write a CLR for any platform that they needed to.

Needless to say, C# doesn't have nearly the platform diversity that Java does, at this point in it's life, at least.

Man that's a lot of acronyms in one post!

 

[sygyzy]

I don't have any qualms about JAVA as a language but to say it is ready to run as full fledged products is sily IMHO. We have TeamTrack at work and that is entirely JAVA and it's slow as beans. I mean have you ever seen a graphical JAVA program run fast? I haven't, even professional programmed products.

 

[dawks]

Originally posted by: sygyzy
I don't have any qualms about JAVA as a language but to say it is ready to run as full fledged products is sily IMHO. We have TeamTrack at work and that is entirely JAVA and it's slow as beans. I mean have you ever seen a graphical JAVA program run fast? I haven't, even professional programmed products.

Thats my other issue with Java, its UGLY as hell. I've never seen a nice looking Java applet.. Do they exist? Links?

 

[Sunner]

You can make DBVisualizer look pretty good.
Still runs like complete ass on pretty much any hardware though, as all Java apps do.

 

[johnjbruin]

its for the development of quick products. specially when you need to churn out the product in a really short time period and optimization is not a big factor. it is used quite a lot commercially even though it is slow and a big memory hog.

 

[dighn]

Originally posted by: DaZ

Originally posted by: sygyzy
I don't have any qualms about JAVA as a language but to say it is ready to run as full fledged products is sily IMHO. We have TeamTrack at work and that is entirely JAVA and it's slow as beans. I mean have you ever seen a graphical JAVA program run fast? I haven't, even professional programmed products.

Thats my other issue with Java, its UGLY as hell. I've never seen a nice looking Java applet.. Do they exist? Links?

Swing (java2 gui) is skinnable and can look quite nice

java isn't really slow once it's loaded. it's the loading that is extremely slow. and the ui but with a fast CPU it shouldn't be noticable.

it is a memory hog though...

 

[Sunner]

I find GUI apps to be very slow, unless they're very small.
DBVisualizer is a good example, it's a complex piece of software, and extremely slow, maybe I was exaggerating a bit when I said "any hardware", replace that with "most hardware".

Sun's own SMC(Solaris Management Console) is another example.
It's dog slow on a 450 MHz US-II, I recon maybe it'll run halfway decently on a 1.3 GHz US-IIIi, but that shouldn't be required IMO.

 

[MrChad]

Originally posted by: DaZ

Originally posted by: sygyzy
I don't have any qualms about JAVA as a language but to say it is ready to run as full fledged products is sily IMHO. We have TeamTrack at work and that is entirely JAVA and it's slow as beans. I mean have you ever seen a graphical JAVA program run fast? I haven't, even professional programmed products.

Thats my other issue with Java, its UGLY as hell. I've never seen a nice looking Java applet.. Do they exist? Links?

Here's a neat Java photo browsing app that my professor back in college wrote.

 

[rgwalt]

You kids have it all wrong... It is all about the FORmula TRANslation. F90 baby, gotta love it.

R

 

[rh71]

What is the absolute easiest way to learn Java for a post graduate ? (serious question)

 

[MrChad]

Originally posted by: rh71
What is the absolute easiest way to learn Java for a post graduate ? (serious question)

The Java Tutorial is a good place to start.

 

[damiano]

because its the best and easiest language to learn OOP
also there are a lot of applications these days that use java
personally i use java in all the small programs I have to write there are prewritten classes fora bout everything you can dream of
also with the increase of memory on most computer these days you don't have to worry much about the "inefficiencies: of java for (memory use)

as someone said before if you don't understand why JAVA is great it means you should stay in college a bit more

 

[edro]

It just gives you the basics of OOP...

And yes, it is basically useless. (Other than as a learning language)

 

[rh71]

Websphere = web applications = need to understand Java.

 

[Bassyhead]

Also most of the algorithms used and data structures can easily be implemented in other high level languages. Java is just a simpler platform to learn them on.

 

[Vadatajs]

Originally posted by: TheBoyBlunder
So people can get told by asshat advisors to take it with Calc I and flunk out of school.

/bitter

I learned java in my operating systems class (cosc433) while taking upper level statistics and mathmatical proof last semister. Java I + Calc I = easy.

 

[Jzero]

Originally posted by: rh71
What is the absolute easiest way to learn Java for a post graduate ? (serious question)

Check that tutorial above and grab a book like Thinking In Java. If you have any programming experience, especially C++, you will pick it up fairly quickly.

 

[SP33Demon]

Originally posted by: edro13
It just gives you the basics of OOP...

And yes, it is basically useless. (Other than as a learning language)

Wrong again. I work and develop app's for the Navy, and we use Java in all of our middleware mapping app's (mainly customized through ArcIMS by ESRI).