Java Programming Language – Is it losing popularity?

Java’s future is on the wane – this is what experts as well as surveys are predicting about one of the world’s most popular software development languages. It is suggested that almost around three billion devices still run on Java. However, in the recent times, it has been at the receiving end of the users majorly due to its security issues. However, there are many reasons why it is preferred by the programmers during software development. There might be trouble in deciding its future owing to the business model promoted by Oracle but it is still a long way before the language completely ceases to exist.

One of the primary reasons why Java is considered useful is because it is an impressive server side language. For implementing infrastructure several big companies are still using it into their data centers and then integrating them to the mainframe and all other kinds of devices. This programming language has a well defined technology and backed by some of the most well known software companies in the world, like, Oracle and IBM. These companies still have a stronghold over the software market. Moreover, people who are looking to build systems with simple architecture definitely prefer this language. For instance, while developing a reservation system for the railways, Java will have complete edge over other software development languages, like, Python.

Java is a dynamic language. This factor makes it extremely popular with the developers who can create cross platform applications with it. There are end numbers of open source frameworks on which it can work efficiently as well as smoothly. In addition to this, Java is not only a language but it is also a platform. It is a perfect platform on which dynamic languages like Scala, Goovy and Ruby could easily run. Thus, if the programmers want to include dynamic languages in the infrastructure, now they can do it without a worry. The popularity of the handheld devices is also adding to the usability of Java. For the back-end applications, this is irreplaceable. The Android systems support Java and there is no escape from it when it comes to your smartphones. As a browser plugin, it might have lost its place but it is essential when it comes to Android development.

So what are the reasons for losing its popularity? Well, there are several reasons that are working against this software development language. In a world where technology is constantly being updated, Java does not receive frequent updates. Users do not update it even after the release of a new version. In more corporate set-up, the system admin might update but this rule does not apply for individual user devices.

Secondly, departing from Sun Microsystems also proved detrimental for the language. At Oracle there is lesser number of breakthrough and innovative technologies. The company has been struggling visibly with providing swift updates and fighting the security vulnerabilities. These problems occur when there is stagnation and not much has changed in this language since 2010. While it is lagging behind without new and innovative features, a host of new languages are ready to take its place. Python, C++, C#, Ruby and many more are gradually capturing the software development market with developers preferring the new versions over the older models.

Java did lose a significant number of followers in the past but to say it has completely lost its place would be an exaggeration. Rather, with the dominance of the cell phone usage, it has found its lost ground to a large extent. Google’s choice has provided a new lease of life to the waning popularity of Java. In addition to this, Oracle is putting in all the efforts to pep it up with new versions and other important releases. To conclude, it is still here to stay. You can get in touch with Java web application development companies who can help you develop web apps that are stable, scalable and secure.

We provide Java web development services. If you would like to hire Java developers India for your development needs, please contact us Mindfire Solutions.

Java Versions – Features & Enhancements

Java, the software platform developed by Oracle has undergone a series of modifications as well as improvements, since the development of JDK or Java Development Kit version 1.0. All these modifications have seen the addition/incorporation of new features and enhancement of the existing ones, with a view to provide value added service to the users. Let us discuss some of the features as well as enhancements that the platform has undergone over the last few years.

However, before we get into the features, let us run through different versions of Java that have seen the daylight over the years. The endeavor of the language started in the year 1996 with the introduction of Java 1.0. The first version was followed by version 1.1 in 1997 and 1.2 in 1998. The subsequent years saw the introduction of versions 1.3, and 1.4 in 2000 and 2002, respectively. Years 2004 and 2006 saw the introduction of versions 5 and 6 respectively, while version 7 was introduced in mid 2011 followed by the version 8 in mid late 2012.

 

Speaking about the new features or enhancements, let us start with Spring Framework 4.0 that was introduced in 2004. The platform has seen major modifications since then. For example, Spring 2.0 version came up with XML namespaces along with AspectJ support. On the other hand, Spring 2.5 version featured configuration that is mainly annotation-driven. Again, Spring 3.0 was rich in a solid J 5+ foundation across its framework codebase along with certain other features like @Configuration model, that is mainly based on Java.

 

When we say that a configuration is annotation-driven, it means that it is a typical type of annotation wherein a certain type of processing is used that provides all the meta-data or configuration information in the J based source file.

 

The next in the line was version 4.0 that provides a full support for version 8. Yet, this also allows the use of Spring with the older versions as well, though for that the user would need at least SE 6.

Again, when we come to version 4.0, we see that many classes as well as methods have been removed.

 

On the other hand the Spring 4.0 Framework comes up with a number of features that are supported by the version 8. Still, Spring has retained its compatibility with the previous versions of Java application Development Kit and Java. The bottom line is that it is pretty difficult to describe all the features or the enhancements of the language versions. Yet, let us get into a synopsis of them. JDK version 1.1 came up with JDBC (Java Database Connectivity), inner classes, Java Beans, RMI (Remote Method Invocation), Reflection.

 

J2SE Version 1.2 has come up with Collections Framework, Just In Time (JIT) compiler, Java String memory map for constants, Jar Signer to sign Java ARchive (JAR) files, Java Foundation Classes (JFC) consisting of Swing 1.0, Drag and Drop, and J 2D class library, CLOB, sets of scrollable result, batch update, BLOB, user-defined types of JDBC, J Plug-ins, Applet Audio support.

 

JDK Version 1.1 comes up with J Database Connectivity, Java Beans, Reflection, Remote Method Invocation. J2SE Version 1.4 features XML Processing, J Web Start, J Print Service, Assertions, JDBC 3.0 API, Chained Exception, Logging API, Preferences API, Assertions, Image I/O API, Regular Expressions, IPv6 Support.

 

J SE 6 contains Scripting Language Support, J Compiler API, JDBC 4.0 API, Pluggable Annotations, Integrated Web Services, integrated Web Services. LDAP support, Java GSS, Kerberos, Native PKI.

 

J SE 7 features Automatic null Handling, Binary Literals, underscore in literals, Diamond Syntax, J nio Package, Dynamic Language Support, Type Inference for Generic Instance Creation, Handling of Multiple Exceptions, Strings in switch Statement.

 

J SE 8 features include TLS SNI, Parallel operations, Concurrent Accumulators, Type Annotations, Nashhorn JavaScript Engine, Default Methods, Type Annotations, Date and Time API, Lambda Expressions, Pipelines and Streams.

 

We provide java software development services. If you would like to hire certified java developers for your development needs, please contact us at Mindfire Solutions.

Avail Completely Customized Ecommerce solution with Java

Java is an autonomous programming language offering a brilliant computing platform that incorporates automatic memory control. Java programming is secure, robust and guarantees high quality performance. Java is also architecturally neutral, network savvy, and portable. In fact, it is possible to run Java on almost any kind of platform or JVM (Java Virtual Machine), irrespective of the computer architecture. As a programming language, Java is very popular and makes room for viewing 3D images, chatting, and playing games and a host of intranet applications. The striking aspects of this computing platform in terms of accessibility, portability, flexibility, convenience of use and safety make it the most preferred choice for customized ecommerce solutions. Java ecommerce is mainly effective due to its presence at the client as well as the server sides.

Benefits of Java

• Simple: Java is a very simple programming language to learn because its syntax is more or less based on C++. Hence programmers can easily learn it once they are thorough with C++. The Java platform does away with complicated features like operator overloading, explicit pointers and so on, which makes it a convenient tool for ecommerce development. Since Java offers Automatic Garbage Collection, there is no need to eliminate unreferenced objects.

• Object-Oriented: Developers need to organize software in the form of a compilation of different kinds of objects which incorporates behavior as well as data. Through OOPS (Object-oriented programming), Java simplifies software development and offers convenient maintenance.

• Platform Independent: The Java platform is a software-based platform which consists of two components, namely Runtime Environment and Application Programming Interface. It is possible to run Java code on a number of platforms like Linux, Windows and more. The compiler compiles the code which is then transformed into byte code, a platform independent code that can be operated on diverse platforms.

• Security: One of the major concerns of an ecommerce site is the security aspect and Java is designed to address the same perfectly. This programming language and platform is secured because of the fact that it has no explicit pointer and programs are executed within virtual machine sandbox. There is the Classloader which imparts security by separation of packages pertaining to classes within local file system from those introduced from network sources. The Bytecode Verifier identifies any illegal code within the code fragments while Security Manager estimates the resources that a class can access like reading or writing to local disk.

• Robust and Reliable: Java makes use of a robust memory management system. The absence of pointers does away with any security problem. Moreover, the presence of automatic garbage collection, type checking mechanism and exception handling feature makes Java robust and reliable. Interestingly, Java compilers are capable of early detection of problems which in case of other languages would reveal themselves only during execution.
  

• Distributed and Network-centric: Java makes distributed computing extremely convenient with the inherent networking ability that is synchronized with it. With this platform, it is very easy to work across a network with resources and build network-oriented applications through multitier or client-server architectures.

• Multithreaded: This refers to a program’s capability to carry out a number of tasks concurrently within a program. Ecommerce developers can write Java programs which deal with many tasks at the same time through defining multiple threads, sharing the same memory.

• Internationalization: Another reason of the immense popularity for Java for ecommerce development is the internationalization features that this programming language has within its core.

An ecommerce website is a huge platform for businesses to compete for customers. Java, which in many ways is ahead of its counterpart technologies, can indeed offer effective and customized ecommerce solutions. This makes Java web application development hugely popular.

We provide Java web development services. If you would like to discuss with a certified Java developer from our team, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.