this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2024
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Java
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Modern Java is exciting. I choose it willingly for personal projects. And it remains my preference for professional ones.
I'm not a programmer, but I'm interested in your opinion. Could you explain why modern java is exciting in relatively layman terminology?
I guess Java saw the writing on the wall and shifted into high gear. The rate of language development has shot up. Check out all these changes to the language.
I get the sense that the people who think these out are smart and deliberate. I like deliberate.
And there's more coming. Value classes (custom, compound primitives is my understanding) is only one example. The fact that that document even exists is exciting to me. I like reading the instruction manuals for my tools!
The standardized documentation, the culture, the tools, the libraries. After stumbling around C++ all of that was a breath of fresh air. Java is a joy for me. I've been doing it since the 1.1, 1.2 days.
And so y'all know, right now I'm being paid to write Kotlin. I fully intend to integrate its styles and idioms. I get why people like it. Every now and then I do go, "Huh. That's neat." I'd still pick Java over it if I were given a choice. But I gotta pay the bills.
Boimler's great, but right now you sound like Rutherford. I mean that in the best possible way.
As I started before, I don't really get programming, but your enthusiasm for java is evident, and I find that delightful.
I'll take the compliment, thank you!
When I do it on my terms, yes, I do enjoy Java in particular and programming in general. A lot. At a certain level it's not complicated or mystical at all. All you're really doing is simple math (adding, subtracting, etc) on numbers, bunching them into representations that make sense for your problem (how a point is an x coordinate and a y coordinate, for example), moving little arrows that point to said representations, etc. You combine these very simple primitives into a predictable system that solves whatever you're working on. Yeah, you do have to be able to abstract this in your brain. Pictures on paper helps sometimes; I do that myself.
I come in with a maintainability mindset. I enjoy writing simple, to the point, straightforward code that most importantly, I can read and understand in 10 years. Java's "verboseness" is a feature in that respect. Have you tried maintaining someone else's Kotlin? Forgetaboutit.