Author Topic: C++ user switching to Java  (Read 20902 times)

Ex

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C++ user switching to Java
« on: December 04, 2009, 04:53:43 AM »
I'm a long time C++ user. I've been using it heavily for over ten years, such that the thought of switching to any other language is quite daunting. Never the less, I've decided to switch to Java, for a variety of reasons. Anyway, I've been playing around with Netbeans, and I have to say I'm very happy with my choice to switch.

First, Netbeans is an absolutely amazing IDE, and for those of you who haven't tried it yet, I highly recommend it. Also, all the kinds of advanced Java features like webstart and OpenGL are all the easiest things to implement. It's really nice to be able to drag and drop an OpenGL window onto a form with buttons.

Anyway, I just wanted to say that Java is awesome, especially with Netbeans, and if you haven't tried it yet, you should :)

purestrain

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Re: C++ user switching to Java
« Reply #1 on: December 04, 2009, 08:10:25 AM »
As a long time C++ user (and general language hopper like C#, D, Vala...) i agree with you. Beside i'm using eclipse i've never seen such productive tools like in the java world.

Too bad i'd thought a long time java is slow, ugly und should die. Well; the language itself is not that good, but the platform in general is topnotch. I'm disovering a whole new world and i'm looking forward to dive deep into spring, osgi and other things.

Slash

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Re: C++ user switching to Java
« Reply #2 on: December 04, 2009, 11:55:47 AM »
@Elig, that's nice... but dont be blinded by the drag and drop tools, I have learned not to expect anything from them for serious work!

I am more of an Eclipser, but that's a matter of taste

Etinarg

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Re: C++ user switching to Java
« Reply #3 on: December 04, 2009, 12:50:48 PM »
There might be better IDEs than Netbeans, but I'm using it too, and I'm overall quite happy with it. Java definitely grew up and I like the ease of developing with Java. I don't want to go back to C++ or C.

OpenGL is a bit a tricky thing though, one looses the portability of plain Java code, because the libraries are system specific. But i was also very positively surprised that I could make a simple OpenGL program within a day without much prior knowledge of OpenGL.

Krice

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Re: C++ user switching to Java
« Reply #4 on: December 04, 2009, 01:29:36 PM »
Java was one of those languages that was supposed to solve all "problems" C++ had, but instead it has problems of its own. From what I have seen Java can be less portable than C++ even it was designed to be highly portable!

Ex

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Re: C++ user switching to Java
« Reply #5 on: December 04, 2009, 06:10:56 PM »
@Elig, that's nice... but dont be blinded by the drag and drop tools, I have learned not to expect anything from them for serious work!

I am more of an Eclipser, but that's a matter of taste
I was thinking of trying Eclipse, but Netbeans got tried first. I'll definitely give Eclipse a try.

Java was one of those languages that was supposed to solve all "problems" C++ had, but instead it has problems of its own. From what I have seen Java can be less portable than C++ even it was designed to be highly portable!
Compiling things in C++ across platform in a universally portable way is an almost impossible effort. It might be somewhat easy to compile for multiple operating systems like Mac, Windows and Linux, but even this can be quite difficult. I've had a hard enough time trying to compile for Windows and Linux, where Java allows me to compile for all three with only one binary. Under Linux, the problem is magnified, because each Linux distro has some quirks to be taken into account. And since Linux isn't binary compatible, this requires taking all the quirks of each distro into account in the source and/or build system. Comparatively, Java is very nice for having such good inherent binary compatibility.

Is Java's binary crossplatform compatibility perfect? Hell no. But it's a really nice goal! :D In five or ten years it'll be much better at this than it is today, and today it's still pretty good.

Sure, Java may not have multiple inheritance, but how many people use that in C++? I know I don't :) I'd much rather have the ability to initialize a variable to a value inside of a class, which Java can do and C++ can't. (As in, class example { int myvalue=0; } )
« Last Edit: December 04, 2009, 06:15:44 PM by Elig »

purestrain

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Re: C++ user switching to Java
« Reply #6 on: December 04, 2009, 09:04:37 PM »
What about setting up svn and working together on a java roguelike? I'm no more motivated to do one alone  :(

Slash

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Re: C++ user switching to Java
« Reply #7 on: December 05, 2009, 03:08:47 AM »
This has been tried before (GREEKIE) and failed... we may try again though...

getter77

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Re: C++ user switching to Java
« Reply #8 on: December 05, 2009, 04:31:13 AM »
This has been tried before (GREEKIE) and failed... we may try again though...

Oh ho...tell us a story!  I'd like to think any reasonable team efforts stand a better shot going forward just because.  (Also I might be able to hop onboard but that's obviously a trickier matter requiring some doings)

My ignorance of Java, as all languages, leave me free from predisposed malice.  But even otherwise, whatever works---and especially whatever happens to work better for somebody ie Elig.
Brian Emre Jeffears
Aspiring Designer/Programmer/Composer
In Training

purestrain

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Re: C++ user switching to Java
« Reply #9 on: December 06, 2009, 01:33:08 PM »
This has been tried before (GREEKIE) and failed... we may try again though...

My only condition is to clearly seperate the game and ui, so i could do a port to android. ;D