Introduction

Talk to any experienced programmer and you would get similar answers about Java since Java was released in 1995 under Sun Microsystems ‘the sun hasn’t set for java’. It has become immortal in the world of software where each day something new emerges and outplays the older technology.

Java has been in demand for a long time

Around 3 billion devices all over the globe are running on java as well as about 125 million TV sets and every Blu-ray player uses Java. Such a huge user base is fairly large enough to not let its major technology vanish away with time.

Unknowingly many of the utility applications that we use today are made using java, it is very difficult to find a software domain where java has not played a huge part. The popular Google Docs, Microsoft Word, and Adobe PDF Reader are all developed using Java.

This is just a glimpse of various reasons why Java has been one of the most prominent programming languages for more than 25 years. Whenever we search for a job we look at whether it is future safe or not and whether it provides job security or not. Java and java developers have been in demand for a long time and their versatile nature ensures job security.

Twitter in 2006 migrated from Ruby on Rails to java in order to deal with more daily tweets. Java’s Just in Time Compiler offers unmatched speed and this made Twitter manage 400 million tweets a day. This step proved how reliable and scalable the JVM architecture is.

These features made Java popular.

TIOBE and PYPL show java amongst the most popular languages in 2020.

High Salary of Java Developers

Who is a java developer?

A person designated to write, debug and test programs written in java language. The work might vary according to the specific domain the java developer works for.

For instance, the developer would be designated to create and test applications if he is working on android applications. On the other hand a web developer would be expected to write code that creates backend services using java and also establishes a connection between the frontend and backend application.

Statistics have revealed that java developers are paid handsomely. An average American earns $95,513 per year and ₹458,970/year in India as a java developer (Source).

Today Java is implemented by many top companies all over the world because of its high demand and its versatile nature. These companies always ensure a great package and great learning experience for their employees. Hence we must have knowledge about java for greater future prospects.

Uber.
Airbnb.
Netflix.
Google.
Pinterest.
Instagram.
Spotify.
Amazon.

Java is easy to learn

The language has been made such that the user does not find it difficult to remember and use the various functions and keywords that it provides. Although the language provides longer literal names than languages like C and C++, they ensure that the code reflects easily its working.

Many people start from python in the beginning when they learn code mainly because of its shorter syntax and libraries. But this is just a less productive shortcut. Programming requires you to enhance your logical skills and brainstorm yourself.

Languages like Java introduce us to the fundamentals of programming like arrays, functions, utility libraries, and packages and then allows us to study and find the most efficient approach for any problem all by yourself.

Such a method of learning is ruined in python as it provides a library to implement almost all different tasks that could help us learn.

For example

Math library in python provides us with functions to find the factorial of a number, combination of a number, permutation of a number, and many more. Hence your fundamentals of programming will be strong if you use java.

Java is platform independent

Irrespective of the fact that you work on linux, windows or mac you are always free to reuse your java code on the same platform and cross platform as well. Java was popularised by the catchphrase of WORA( write once run anywhere ). This approach of java revolutionised the software world and brought real time reusability of code for developers.

How a Java source code is executed in the background?

The java source code is written in .java extension file

The java source code is first converted to byte code during compilation

.java file -> .javac file

This byte code is sent to JVM which converts it into machine code for execution

.javac file -> JVM -> machine code

Platform independence does not really mean that java can be written and run anywhere. Java can be used wherever it is provided by the JVM( Java Virtual Machine). This JVM is responsible for translating the byte code into the code that the machine can understand and execute. These are the steps of execution of a programme:

First java source code is compiled into a byte code
This byte code is platform-independent.
The byte code is executed by the Java Virtual Machine
The Java Virtual Machine is platform dependent.

This makes Java platform-independent.

Java is free of cost

Sun Microsystems decided to make java freely available to all those who wanted to use it. This step when coupled with the platform independent nature of java created a really enticing package for the software developers sounds the world.

This allows people to freely experiment and learn with java.

Java is rich in open source libraries

One aspect which always plays a significant role in every field of work is its financial aspect. People tend to be more attracted towards free and less costly stuff. This concept is now followed by most companies now.

Similarly java today enables its users to have a cost effective learning by using its numerous free APIs. We have access to free APIs for any task.

I/O operations, networking, database management, and connection, and even more could be done using these APIs. Moreover, now popular organizations like Apache and Google are constantly developing java APIs for many more tasks.

Java is versatile in nature

Java covers every aspect that a programming language could ever cover. It is used for all these tasks

Competitive Programming
Web Development(Backend)
Android Development
Cloud Application Development
Scientific Applications
Gaming Applications
Commercial and Financial Applications

Web development(Backend) using Java is made possible using some of the most popular frameworks like Spring, Maven. They promote robust and secure software development. These can also be multi-threaded in order to deal with multiple concurrent threads which would make our product even more responsive and efficient.

Google offers Java alongside Kotlin for the development and deployment of Android Apps through Android Studio. Several games that we played once are all based on java. Some of these games are Minecraft, FIFA, Street Fighter, Asphalt, and many more.

Java has a great community support

Debugging a program is even more difficult than writing the program sometimes. It is a crucial step that needs to be taken seriously. For every issue, we face here we look for answers on the web. This work can become tedious if there is not any trusted community/platform that provides exact solutions to us.

Since java has been probably the most prominent language for more than 25 years it has got tremendous community support on the web.

One of the most trusted documentation for java is javadocs which provides complete information regarding various concepts of java.

Websites like stackoverflow and javatpoint have also been of great help for programmers( specially competitive programmers). It is very rare that you would come across an error which hasn’t been understood, solved, and posted on the web. This support does not let a user make a transition to another programming language.

Java and its productivity tools

The proper long syntaxes in Java reflect the program’s working brilliantly but they have been a hitch for users who want a time efficient development. This issue is now dealt with by IDEs that provide auto completion of code syntaxes. Moreover, using IDEs in comparison to notepad enables us to improve the semantical and syntactical errors while coding. The IntelliSense in the IDEs keeps checking our program for imperfections and reduces our work time.

These IDEs also allow us to build and manage our projects using the best software development practices. Some popular IDEs are VsCode, Sublime Text, IntelliJ, Eclipse, and many more.

OOPs in Java

What is OOPS?

OOPS( Object Oriented Programming) is an approach to solve problems. This approach involves objects which are a collection of data values and functions. These objects when used with the various principles of OOPs model real life entities very well.

For example ;

In order to describe a car, we would require multiple data variables in programming(without OOPS) but with OOPS we only need to define the object once as a class and then we are free to use it as many times as we want.

Due to java being almost completely OOPs we are unable to solve real life problems very accurately.

Without OOPS

double price_1,mileage_1;

String company_name_1,model_name_1;

int year_of_manufacture_1;

double price_2,mileage_2;

String company_name_2,model_name_2;

int year_of_manufacture_2;

With OOPS

public class car{

double price,mileage;

String company_name,model_name;

int year_of_manufacture;

};

car object_1;

car object_2;

Summary

Hence we can now say that java ticks all the checkboxes for any new user to start learning it. Its popularity has not reduced since its inception into the world and it is recommended to anyone who needs to build or refine his programming skills and understand the complete functioning of software deeply.

Learning java will always be profitable even if one is not working in a java environment. Since java itself clears all the programming fundamentals and always gives you a job prospect.