Popularity of Java Programming Language - Research Paper Example

? Popularity of Java Popularity of Java Over years, Java programming language has had a steady growth as a popular development language. As compared to other programming languages like C#, PHP, Perl, Python or C++, Java has a significant following given that many developers prefer using this programming language to complete their projects. In 2011, about 17.87 % of developers in the world used java in their projects making the single most popular language (Krill, 2011). While the rating of Java against other programming languages may change, there is no doubt that Java remains a popular programming languages for the implementation of software solutions. The popularity of Java is not without a reason, but it stems from several attributes that make developers choose this programming language. Java remains popular because it is robust, secure, easy to use, and portable. Java is robust Java has several attributes that make it a robust programming language as compared to other alternatives such as Visual Basic or C++. Firstly, the creators of Java created this program with network operations in mind. There are a few programing language that can handle communication between networks like Java does. With the popularity of using the internet to deliver distributed applications, Java became the popular choice of many developers interested in exploiting network functionalities. The success of Java to boost the development of distributed system rests on the fact that Java is portable (Birkland, 2003). In java, programmers have access to libraries that allows them build scalable applications that communicate through the network using protocols such as TCP/IP. In addition, Java allows the use of HTTP and FTP protocols making the java program popular. It’s the ability of Java applications to work across networks that made the language popular among many developers targeting the internet as their medium of distribution. Java is also robust because it provides programmers with powerful exception handling, a feature absent in other programming languages. The choice of Java among many programmers stems from the fact that Java is out of box programming language that enforces strict type checking. This implies that developers have the ability to detect and make correction of issues while still developing applications. This characteristic allows java developers to worry less that their programmers will not work after they are compiled (Birland, 2003). Moreover, when java programs encounter errors, the error handling feature allows them to handle the errors and prevent the application from crashing. This trait of Java is a pull factor that makes programmers builds robust application. With the development of applications using Java less error prone, many developers prefer using java. Automatic memory management in Java makes this programming language a robust platform for developer to build enterprise class applications that have high performance. When an application is running, memory management is one of the fundamental processes that assure programmers of correct applications that run with no errors (Manuel, David, Katzalin, 2012). With java, the process of tracking used and unused memory is a function of Java and not the programmer. This implies that Java programming give developers that assurance that their software will handle memory efficiency and avoid runtime errors that could crash the application. Without an automatic memory management process, programmers have the duty to allocate memory to processes and reallocate the memory once they are in use. With memory management in java being an automatic process, many developers prefer using Java as their programs are less prone to memory management issues. Java is a secure programming language The develop community tout java as a secure language that allows secure transaction across networks. The structure of java programs ensures that java programs execute within the java runtime environment and not outside this scope. This feature of java ensures that Java applications do not access data outside the disk area where java programs reside. As compared to other languages, where programs may access any data on the disk, java confines itself within the install location of the java run time environment (Alfredo & Riccardo, 2010). Given that many java application run on networks such as the Internet, this feature makes Java programs secure since users are confident that that an application will not access data elsewhere in the disk and compromise on their disk security. Java does not use pointers, which could make java program access various areas of the disk. With the lack of pointers in java, it is impossible for java applications to access all areas of memory and possibly cause a security issue. Most important, Java obscures the reference model making it impossible for programmers to view objects that could otherwise make their applications insecure. With many users downloading program from the internet, this security feature of Java makes it secure and popular among users who mind their security of their systems when using the internet. Java is a portable language There are many computer architectures and java is popular because a java application can run in all platforms without any modification of the code. When writing computer applications, developers face the challenge of porting their program from one platform to another. For instance, a program running in windows is unlikely to run in Linux unless there are modifications to the code. This is because each platform has different ways of executing program and programmers must take these factors into account when targeting different platforms. However, Java does not present problems to developers as a single java application has the ability to run across all platforms. This is possible because Java applications require Java runtime environment to execute and this makes the program work in any environment with the java runtime environment. With many platforms having their own java run time environment, it is possible for developers to deploy their programs across a host of platforms. With the portability of java programs, Java program run on the PC and mobile phone not to mention devices such as fridges, and microwaves that allow embedding of software. Java is easy to use Learning Java is easy as the program has simple to use tools and the syntax of the language is familiar with programmers who have worked with other programming languages before. When choosing a language, programmers consider the ease of using a language as this determines their speed during coding. Fortunately, Java is simple to learn as the syntax has less variation to other languages such as C++. In addition, java is an object oriented program making programmers access the powerful attributes of the program (Uysal, 2012). For instance, programmers can build functions that they can reuse within the program. This prevents programmers from spending more time building new components and subjecting their code to errors. With Java being an object oriented programming language, the software is easy to use among many programmers. Apart from the reuse of code, java being an object oriented language makes the java applications easy to maintain as programmers need to make slight changes to update applications. Certainly, Java remains a popular language given its robustness, portability, ease of use and security. References Alfredo, P. &, Riccardo, S. (2010). Provably correct Java implementations of Spi Calculus security protocols specifications, Computers & Security,29 (3): 302 - 314 Birland, C. (2003). Connecting with Java. Fleet Equipment, 29(6): T2 Krill, P. (2011, November 9). Java remains most popular language -- thanks to Android | Application Development - InfoWorld. Business technology, IT news, product reviews and enterprise IT strategies - InfoWorld. Retrieved January 25, 2013, from http://www.infoworld.com/d/application- development/java-remains-most-popular-language-thanks-android-178469-0 Manuel, V. J., David, A. & Katzalin, O. (2012). Memory power optimization of Java- based embedded systems exploiting garbage collection information, Journal of Systems Architecture, 58(12): 61 – 72 Uysal, M.P(2012).The Effects of Objects-First and Objects-Late Methods on Achievements of OOP Learners, Journal of Software Engineering and Applications, 5(10): 816 Read More