The future of Java

For one reason or another I've been thinking about the future of Java for a while; more the language than the platform (JEE). I think that the JEE platform will continue to evolve over the coming years, more likely into a series of specific vertical solutions. But this entry isn't about the platform, it's about the language.

Although I've been using Java since it was known as Oak and have written a fair amount with it (for example, I wrote the first ever Java transaction implementation over Christimas 1996), it's never been my favourite programming language. There are some things that I liked about the language from the start, such as threading, but others, such as garbage collection (yes, I like the control of a good delete) and lack of multiple inheritance, that I didn't. The Java language has certainly evolved over the past decade, mostly for the better (garbage collection is a lot better now and we have templates), but in general the language still takes a lowest common denominator approach. And it has got rather bloated.

Ignoring several assembly languages, over the years I've learnt many high level languages including Pascal, Mesa, Smalltalk-80, Lisp, Prolog, C/C++, Simula, D, Forth and of course Java. My favourite is still C++ though. Yes I know it has its flaws and yes I know it's not the most forgiving of languages. I can't quite put my finger on precisely why I still prefer C++. I remember when we were testing the first pre-releases of Cfront for AT&T back in the mid 1980's and wondering along with Graeme and Stuart as to whether we could port it to our Atari's using Metacomco C. I seem to recall us making some progress, but Linux came on the scene bringing with it gcc. But none of this explains why I prefer C++. Maybe it's the level of direct control it gives you (as with C). Or maybe it's something else. Whatever, I'm sure it's all subjective.

Anyway, I digress. Where does this leave Java? Well I think if you look back over the past 40+ years of high level programming languages one thing is very obvious: change happens. Our ability to reason about complex algorithms and the best way of putting them into code evolves, whether it's declarative, procedural, object-oriented or something else. I think it's fairly clear that Java's dominance in the industry will wane. Yes it'll be legacy for many years to come; the 21st Century COBOL, so it will continue to be important. But something new is coming. Maybe not today and maybe not tomorrow. But it's coming nonetheless.