History:
James Gosling and his team started working on JAVA, initially named as the OAK in the Early 1990s. The first stable version was Java Alpha & Beta was released in 1995. Java bagged one of the ten best products awards by time magazine in the same year. Java versions were rolled out continuously. Twenty-five years later, the latest version Java SE 14, was released in March 2020.
Statistics:
Let’s look at some numbers.
The average salary of a Java developer is more than 100000 USD.
In India, even an entry-level Java developer gets paid around 4LPA.
As per the TIOBE 2020 Popularity Index, Java is the most popular and preferred programming language across the world.
According to PYPL (PopularitY of Programming Language), Java is the second most popular programming language, next to python.
Java runs in
- Ninety-seven percentage of Enterprise desktops
- Ninety-five percentage of Enterprise Apps
- Eighty-nine percentage of Systems
- One hundred percentage of Blu-ray Disc Players
- Almost all android apps
- Approximately one billion Computers
- Approximately three billion mobile phones
- Five billion Java Cards
- One twenty-five million TV devices
But why is Java so popular?
Platform independence:
“Write Once & Run Anywhere” is the motto of the Java programming language. Java lets developers build an application that can run across any operating system or server. All you need is JRE (Java Runtime Environment) – Java application can run in any desktop or mobile platform.
Open Source:
Java is open-source and free. Though Oracle JDK is free to use in the development and testing environment one has to pay to use it in a production environment. Also, Oracle OpenJDK is free for use, even in a production environment. There are also other Java builds from various communities that make JAVA free to use for everybody.
Support:
The Java developer community is considered the most popular in the world. Being open-source, you get round the clock support from various developers living all over the world. The Java developer community is ever-growing and issue resolution time is very high. More than 90000 public repositories are there on GitHub.
Documentation:
Java has well-maintained documentation. There is a detailed guide available for every single problem that you may encounter while using java.
Easy to learn:
Java is an object-oriented programming language, so the development is simple. Java supports modularity and easy to approach programming code. Readability is high when coded in Java. Java is easy to learn – once you learn it, the same syntax, patterns, tools can be implied in other languages as well.
Vast Libraries and APIs:
Java’s huge repositories, libraries and APIs will help to build almost any complex applications, multi-threaded programming without external code libraries or APIs.
Speed:
JVM (Java virtual machine) JIT (just in time) compiler is very fast and it significantly enhances the performance of Java applications. Even other languages like groovy, Scala uses JVM as their execution platform.
Scalability:
Java is highly scalable. Developers can develop an application that can be easily customized across platforms. Google recommends developers to use Java for building android apps.
Highly secure:
Java language and runtime systems are built-in with safety features. It is a difficult task to maliciously invade java applications.
Reusability:
It is easy to reuse common codes in Java. Java being an object-oriented programming language, inheritance makes the coding simple, efficient and effective.
Easy troubleshooting:
Readability is high with Java code, hence making the troubleshooting easier. When written using proper conventions, Java code can be understood by people with basic programming knowledge.
Evolution:
With a new release every six months, Java is evolving continuously and at a faster rate, accommodating all the needs of developers and innovations.
Backward compatibility:
There is a new release, every six months. So, what happens to the code that was written in the older version? Well, Java is backwards compatible. The code written in one version will run perfectly fine in all newer versions without any modification.
Where Java is used?
- For creating android apps
- For developing web apps
- For designing scientific applications
- For enterprise applications
- For creating software tools
- For gaming
Java for future:
The future technology IoT, Data Science, Machine learning, artificial intelligence and blockchain uses Java and are much more compatible.
Java and IoT:
Java is highly portable and that makes it a perfect choice for IoT devices. For IoT devices, interoperability is very crucial as it works with a cluster of technologies like cloud computing, big data, hardware devices, sensors. Java fits the bill perfectly as it is interoperable. Extensive built-in libraries in Java helps to have complete control over the embedded code. Java can work in any computing environment smoothly and securely.
Java and Blockchain:
Even in Blockchain technology, java is widely used.
Web3j and HyperLedger Fabric are the most widely used Java frameworks in Blockchain. Java, with its flexibility and security, will increase the demand of Java developers in the Blockchain technology.
Java and Data science:
Big data is an essential part of data science. Most big data frameworks and tools use java. Fink, Hadoop, hive and spark use Java frameworks and tools. JVM can be used as a platform for data science and Machine learning as several processes including Natural language processing (NLP) and data visualization can be done using java. JVM enables developers to write code across multiple platforms. Java-ML, Java machine learning library is a collection of machine learning algorithms. There are over 70 java based open source machine learning projects available and most machine learning libraries are java based.
Verdict:
Even in 2020, Java is worth learning and it is projected to be a popular language in 2050. Java is an incredibly fast, reliable and secure programming language. Many won’t disagree, Java is here to stay!
If you want to learn Java, we have two extensive courses – Core Java programming & Advanced java programming. Get in touch with us to enrol.