97 Things Every Java Programmer Should Know

Chapter 80. Think Outside the Java Sandbox

Ian F. Darwin

“Java is the best language ever, for every purpose.” If you believe this, you need to get out more. Sure, Java’s a great language, but it’s not the only good language, nor the best for every purpose. In fact, every so often you should—as a professional developer—take the time to learn and use a new language, either at work or on your own. Go deep enough to recognize how it differs in some fundamental way from what you’re used to and whether it might be useful in your projects. In other words: try it, you might like it. Here are a few languages you may want to learn:

• JavaScript is the language of the browser. Despite similar names and a dozen or so keywords, JavaScript and Java are very different. JavaScript comes with hundreds of different web frameworks, some of which go beyond the frontend. For example, Node.js lets you run JavaScript server-side, which opens up many new possibilities.

• Kotlin is a JVM language that, like most of these languages, has a more relaxed syntax than Java, along with other features that can give it an advantage over Java. Google uses Kotlin for much of its work in Android and encourages its use in Android apps. ‛Nuff said!

• Dart and Flutter: Dart is a compiled scripting language from Google. Originally for web programming, it didn’t blossom until Flutter began using Dart for Android and iOS ...