8/11/2019 15 Things We Hate About Java

1/2

15 things we hate about Java

We don't really hate Java. It's the best thing that's happened to us. We love its type-checked, belts-and-suspenders world for the stability and ubiquity. But

that doesn't ean we can't coplain a bit and dish out the snarky, cranky coents, does it! Isn't that why the Internet was invented!

"ere are #$ coplaints about the write-once, run-ostly-everywhere language that Java has becoe.

Long CamelCase names

%he idea of gluing together long sentences into variable naes by capitali&ing the first letters gets old quickly. %here's no doubt that it adds a bit of self-

docuentation to the code, but wouldn't it be easier to read a line that said

i // holds the interest rate before taxes as per regulation 43

instead of

interestRateHoldingVariableAdjusted ForTaxesAsDefinedByRegulation43

Punctuation

If there's one a(or difference between Java and the newcoers, it's the punctuation. Java progras are filled with curly brackets, seicolons, and

parentheses that other languages like )roovy or *uby do well without -- not that punctuation lovers don't have a legitiate beef with languages like +ython

that use arcane white-space rules to signify the sae separations between epressions and blocks that punctuation does in Java.

till, ost prograers can't stand the punctuation. %hey see it as visual noise -- and an opportunity for the copiler to scold and scold again. %his

disconnect eans there ay be no easy solution beyond letting soe folks use )roovy and others use plain old Java. t least their code can copile into

the sae J*.

Open source confusion

Is Java open source or not! Which libraries are open source! /arned if I can be sure even after )oogle's long skirish with 0racle.1or the ost part, Java

prograers don't need to worry because the J*2s and J/3s are freely available. But in the backs of our inds, there's always the scary feeling that soe

lawyer will (up out of nowhere and say, 4top54 oehow it feels like the legal status akes us all pawns in the battles between IB6, 0racle, and )oogle.

The Java thread pig farm

When Java cae along, the threads were lightweight copared to any of the other solutions. %hey were an easy way to (uggle ultiple tasks with the

sae eory space. 7ow, the folks using 7ode.(s are always sticking their tongue out at the Java server platfor and suggesting that the Java thread

factory is one big pig far adding 86B of fat to the server *6 profile every tie soeone clicks on a Web link. oehow, using the Java thread odel is

never as lightweight as it used to be. 9)ranted, those of us still prograing in Java aren't either, but that doesn't ake it easier to live with.:

Intolerably slow startup times

nyone who's tried to create an ndroid app using Java knows how slowly the siulator code runs on your desktop. %hat's the ost etree eaple of

how getting a Java progra going is about as hard as getting a teenager to get up early on a aturday to clean their roo. While Java apps can run fairly

soothly once they get going, they start up slower than an overladen #;-wheeler at a red light on an uphill road.

ndless chec!ing for null pointers

Is there anything to this coplaint! ollections classes and other data structures are nice, but they require you to wrap your basic values in ob(ects to use the. %hat eans a four-

byte intturns into a big, fat ob(ect with all the weight and creation tie of an ob(ect. oe prograers have written their own data structures with basic

priitives to avoid this issue, but it's probably too late for ainstrea Java. We're stuck with aking the distinction between a four-byte intand an Integer

ob(ect.

#trings are big$ need overhead$ and are final

trings are yet another ob(ect, but they can't be changed. ?ou better get the right the first tie. If you want to change one byte, you have to create an

entirely new ob(ect and copy it all over. +lus, they add overhead, which is fine for tossing around big blocks of tet but a real nuisance for sall strings. /o

you get a choice! 7ope. Just be happy that the overhead with the start and stop points coes in handy when you're snipping and concatenating.

%o global variables

It's a bit disingenuous for prograers to coplain about the lack of global variables in Java because they're also quite willing to grouse about the dangers

of global variables in other languages like +"+. till, we're forced to (up through strange hoops to do uch of what global variables will give us. oe

people create a Globalclass and fill it with static variables. 0thers build singleton ob(ects coplete with a getting routine that will always return the one

ob(ect. %his ight be tolerable if creating singleton ob(ects weren't so fraught with race conditions and issues about efficiency.

#ecurity flaws

oe say it's not fair to blae Java for the fact that it's a big target. 0thers say that the other platfors have even ore security holes and at least the Java

engineers tried to build a decent sandbo. till others say security issues are epected, and at least 0racle publicly announces bug fies, often in big

batches like the@8 security fies it announced last year.

%hese are all fair points, but they don't ake living with Java any easier. Java's popularity eans that any hackers will target the JA6. Java's security

odel eans that any prograers will trust the JA6 when perhaps they shouldn't trust it so blindly. If only we could believe that the software was

perfect.

J&' freeloaders

6any languages now copile down to Java bytecode, so they can run on any JA6. What better way to draft behind the hard work the Java tea does to

ensure copatibility and ensure your code can run on a variety of platfors! >lo(ure, cala, J*uby, *hino -- the list goes on and on.

%his can be an advantage for integrating, say, *uby with Java, but it inevitably turns into a hassle. uddenly it's not enough to ake sure the Java code

copiles with the libraries you've got. 7ow you have to worry about 7 languages running peacefully in the sae JA6. When it works, it's a testaent to the

power of the Java stack, but it can be a headache generator for everyone.

http://www.infoworld.com/t/intellectual-property/oracle-may-get-second-chance-prove-google-infringed-java-copyrights-232226http://www.infoworld.com/t/intellectual-property/oracle-may-get-second-chance-prove-google-infringed-java-copyrights-232226http://www.infoworld.com/d/security/java-7-update-21-fix-bugs-change-applet-warning-messages-216589http://www.infoworld.com/d/security/java-7-update-21-fix-bugs-change-applet-warning-messages-216589http://www.infoworld.com/d/security/java-7-update-21-fix-bugs-change-applet-warning-messages-216589http://www.infoworld.com/slideshow/36607/9-killer-programming-languages-the-jvm-188716http://www.infoworld.com/slideshow/36607/9-killer-programming-languages-the-jvm-188716http://www.infoworld.com/slideshow/36607/9-killer-programming-languages-the-jvm-188716http://www.infoworld.com/t/intellectual-property/oracle-may-get-second-chance-prove-google-infringed-java-copyrights-232226http://www.infoworld.com/d/security/java-7-update-21-fix-bugs-change-applet-warning-messages-216589http://www.infoworld.com/slideshow/36607/9-killer-programming-languages-the-jvm-188716

8/11/2019 15 Things We Hate About Java

2/2

(evisionism

elf-iproveent is norally an occasion for celebration, but in the world of the Java stack, it can also bring confusion and headaches. hould I use the

newerStringBuilder class or the olderStringBuffer! 0r isStringBuilder the older one! ren't they the sae!t least it's easier to reeber that the new I0 classes, 7I0, are newer than the old ones. %here are do&ens of eaples of new and iproved techniques

that you ight want to use, if you can keep everything straight. %hey keep iproving the Java stack, but this only eans we need to relearn so any of the

idios that were burned into our brains before.

)nfathomable vastness

%he huge collection of official Java +Is and not-as-official open source packages fro groups like pache ake Java a fertile environent for standing on

the shoulders of giants. %he only proble is that you can't stand on the shoulders if you don't know they eist. It can take days to work through the various

+Is to figure out which is really the best for what you're trying to do. %hen the guy in the other cubicle always sees to know soething better, a fact

always delivered with the slightest aount of snark at the code review eeting.

Java is everywhere

Java is everywhere, they say. It's in cellphones, Blu-ray disks, "adoop clouds, and desktops. houldn't that be a cause to celebrate! /oesn't that ean

everyone loves it! ure5 But it also akes it easier to hate because all that success akes it that uch harder to keep a handle on it all. It's a full-tie (ob

(ust watching the Java world evolve.

uick, what do you need to fi when you upgrade fro #.C to #.D! Which version of the pache >oons is good enough! It's not possible to be a Java

epert anyore, and that's a tough revelation for those who could be Java eperts back when the language appeared.