Learning Java, 4th Edition

Java Compared with Other Languages

Java draws on many years of programming experience with other languages in its choice of features. It is worth taking a moment to compare Java at a high level with some other languages, both for the benefit of those of you with other programming experience and for the newcomers who need to put things in context. We do not expect you to have a knowledge of any particular programming language in this book and when we refer to other languages by way of comparison, we hope that the comments are self-explanatory.

At least three pillars are necessary to support a universal programming language today: portability, speed, and security. Figure 1-2 shows how Java compares to a a few of the languages that were popular when it was created.

Figure 1-2. Programming languages compared

You may have heard that Java is a lot like C or C++, but that’s really not true except at a superficial level. When you first look at Java code, you’ll see that the basic syntax looks like C or C++. But that’s where the similarities end. Java is by no means a direct descendant of C or a next-generation C++. If you compare language features, you’ll see that Java actually has more in common with highly dynamic languages such as Smalltalk and Lisp. In fact, Java’s implementation is about as far from native C as you can imagine.

If you are familiar with the current language landscape, ...