Is Java Dying?

In today’s time, old fashioned and ineffective means of technology when compared to modern languages are doomed — this is the case today. But is this really true? Let’s find out!

Is Java considered old-fashioned and dead?

It is true that the base constructs and constraints that Java provides are old fashioned and rely on how the code was written previously, 20 years ago. Yes, Programming languages are not written in a sterilized bubble. Developers’ needs and habits are crucial for language design, and other aspects of a program. While inventors try to infuse innovation into the language, it would be silly to ignore its utilization. Back in 1995, Java encountered its first milestone; while a few of its blocks seemed visionary it was evident that it was subjected to constant change.

Within just a matter of time, the face of Java began evolving. Given in the previous years, a lot has changed. A few of these things seem more relevant than the others. For example, the greater availability of cheap memory played a significant role in the mass re-adoption of functional programming in the field of production software. This was then related to the adoption of the reactive programming manifesto respectively.

Accessible and manageable cloud computing simplified the conceptualization of the microservices model, that found its production role when containers became real. The microservices model then gave a pathway to programming languages which are exceptionally suitable for certain tasks, but less brilliant for others.

Java Today

Although technology and user interface are constantly evolving, JVM still remains very alive, even to this data. Java is struggling to keep its spotlight under the sun. Oracle is aware and is trying to push hard on the gas to make Java great again and while this is delivering some excellent results, nobody really believes that will halt the aging process. Thus, it is not to be considered as a bad thing.

The JVM served as an arena for the creation of extremely modern and efficient languages. 

So… Is Java really dead?

Eminent Dr. Wayne Citrin, CTO and co-founder of JNBridge, LLC recently reminded JAXenter readers that Java is still going well and strong. To add a recently conducted survey of Stack Overflow in 2017 stated that more than 64,000 developers revealed that, Java emerged as the third most popular language right after SQL and JavaScript. The results of the survey also surfaced that Java was the fourth most popular language across occupations including web developers, desktop developers, sysadmins/DevOps and data scientists, right behind JavaScript, SQL and C++. To be more succinct, here is the premise reason why Java is not going away anytime soon:

Reason No. 1

According to Dr. Citrin, one of Java’s advantages is it “has had time to establish superior tools for writing, maintaining and debugging code. Compare this to the scenario for other emerging languages. Until someone has written an IDE extension for the language that works decently in an established IDE, the developer is stuck using an assortment of code editors and command-line compilation and build tools accordingly.”

Reason No. 2

Well, What’s more? Java is fundamentally the bridge to the future. Popular Java-based languages such as Groovy, Clojure, Jython and Scala all compile to the same result that innately Java compiles to.

The truth in today’s languages

Yes, The Java programming language is not disappearing anywhere anytime soon.

Not only because of the humongous amount of software that has been built with it but also because whether you agree or not, with all its defects, Java still is a very suitable, battle-proven option for new projects in the field.

Although its role has evolved it is now one piece of the picture, but a solid one. It is important to consider that, Oracle and the community is doing a satisfactory job in improving Java and its elements.  So we’re all enjoying the advantages of such given advancements. The quality of these developed new features can very well fix the aftertaste of them being a little late on our imaginary schedule.

After all, slow advancements in the life cycle of a programming language can either be a sign of failure, or a sign of success. Breaking these changes is to be taken seriously when your language is being used on such a colossal scale. With every step one makes, one must be able to consider the impact it will cause, and how that influences backward compatibility. This is therefore not to be lightly.

Conclusion – Is Java really dying?

With all the aforementioned facts and figures, it is affirmative that the evolution of this space has accelerated in the last 10 years and will continue to do so within the next 10 years. 

But one thing is certain, that Java is not going anywhere, as said earlier. Java is not dead and is one of our finer achievements and will prevail in the coming years of advancement.