Java began life as an alternative to the conventional way of doing things\u2014an upstart of sorts. Today, despite repeated challenges, it is recognized as a pillar of enterprise software. What explains Java\u2019s continued relevance in the face of such radical change? One essential factor is the passion of the community, which is fostered through governance structures that engage developers to keep Java a living, dynamic force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Far from a smoothly operating machine, Java\u2019s governance is a confusing amalgam of competing interests and organizations that find their voice in the Java Community Process (JCP) and through Java Specification Requests (JSRs)<\/a>. At the end of the day, the JCP is a venue for contribution and conflict resolution among people who care deeply about Java technology. It is a rather mystifying combination of bureaucracy, policy, and creativity. Something like a functioning democracy, in fact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another big driver of Java\u2019s success is the wealth of open source frameworks and tools built up around it. Almost anything you might need has one or more available libraries. If you like a project, there is a good chance it\u2019s open source and you can contribute to it. That\u2019s great for both learning and building community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not long ago I had my hands deep in parsing YAML, and discovered the SnakeYAML<\/a> project. Soon, I was off in the weeds trying to do something exotic with this new project. Not long after that, I was chatting with the project\u2019s owner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Something similar happened when I needed to do some sophisticated process orchestration close to the metal. First, I discovered the NuProcess<\/a> project, then I got to contribute a small fix. Exchanges like that make a programmer\u2019s life richer. They\u2019re also how open source projects evolve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The wealth of projects in the Java ecosystem extends from modest examples like the ones I\u2019ve shared to database drivers and similar technologies, on up to the monumental. There are application servers like Tomcat<\/a> and Jetty<\/a>, frameworks like Hibernate<\/a>, and even the Eclipse IDE<\/a>. All are open source projects that invite contributors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No appreciation for Java\u2019s ecosystem would be complete without tipping our hat to Spring<\/a>. This meta-framework is perhaps the standard to which other meta-frameworks might aspire. Why? Because Spring lets you use the same facility for composing custom code and incorporating third-party code in your programs. Through its implementation of dependency injection<\/a> and inversion-of-control, Spring not only enables you to make your own internal components more standard, but it extends a similar standardization to how third-party projects and vendors prepare their components. This makes for greater consistency in how you use these components in your programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, there are valid critiques of Spring, and it\u2019s not always the right tool. Google Guice<\/a> is another tool that works similarly to Spring. But Spring, as a framework, introduced a clean and consistent way to provision and compose application components. That was a game changer at the time, and it continues to be vital today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the people behind Java and using Java are the wind that keeps the ship sailing, then Java\u2019s technical aspects are the sails. It is impressive that the initial Java specification sprung Athena-like from a single head (the head of James Gosling) but has remained flexible enough to still be relevant today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n An important feature of Java\u2019s design is that, in Java, everything is an object.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a development landscape that currently favors functional programming<\/a>, it\u2019s sometimes fashionable to trash this aspect of Java and object-oriented programming. Java\u2019s stewards have responded by incorporating some functional programming idioms into the language. But they\u2019ve been steadfast in that Java remains a strongly object-oriented language<\/a> where everything is, indeed, an object.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Java virtual machine<\/a> is another facet of Java\u2019s construction that meets with occasional critique. At the time of its development, the JVM was a bold technical solution to the diversity of runtime environments. Since then, it has sometimes seemed a burden of excess architecture and a source of performance difficulties. But after years of incessant refinement, the technology has gradually vindicated itself. It has proved rather prescient, as well. The world has lately become enamored of virtual machines; they are everywhere, even forming the lowest strata of cloud computing<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Applied to devops containers and serverless architectures<\/a>, the JVM offers a clear-cut deployment environment target, with well-defined characteristics and controls. Modern Java virtual machines are also something to behold. They deliver sophisticated automatic memory management with out-of-the-box performance approaching C<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Software development is made up of two powerful currents: the enterprise and the creative. There\u2019s a spirit of creative joy to coding<\/a> that is the only possible explanation for, say, working on a dungeon simulator<\/a> for 25 years. That creativity, united with solid business use, is the alchemy that keeps Java alive and well. For long-term success, a software project must make room for both. Java has done that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a parting note, let\u2019s identify one more potentially watershed event on the horizon: WebAssembly<\/a>, or WASM. Java in WASM is currently limited, and there\u2019s no certainty about how the future will unfold. But it\u2019s possible that Java may one day be used in the browser much like JavaScript is\u2014that is, with full access to the DOM and browser API. Imagine Java in the browser again, but this time for real. Stranger things have happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Posted from: https:\/\/www.infoworld.com\/article\/2335996\/7-reasons-java-is-still-great.html?utm_date=20260306211452&utm_campaign=Top%20Enterprise%20Stories&utm_content=slotno-1-title-10%20reasons%20Java%20is%20still%20great&utm_term=Editorial%20-%20IDG%27s%20Top%20Enterprise%20Stories&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Adestra&aid=26107687&huid=cddec9ec-3c33-48b8-aba2-63c4e99677df<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Java Community Process Java began life as an alternative to the conventional way of doing things\u2014an upstart of sorts. Today, despite repeated challenges, it is recognized as a pillar of enterprise software. What explains Java\u2019s continued relevance in the face of such radical change? One essential factor is the passion of the community, which… Read More »7 reasons Java is still great | InfoWorld<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1558,102],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-java","category-software"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/roglacup.com\/klaus62\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/roglacup.com\/klaus62\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/roglacup.com\/klaus62\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roglacup.com\/klaus62\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roglacup.com\/klaus62\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18344"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/roglacup.com\/klaus62\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18346,"href":"https:\/\/roglacup.com\/klaus62\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18344\/revisions\/18346"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roglacup.com\/klaus62\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/roglacup.com\/klaus62\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roglacup.com\/klaus62\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roglacup.com\/klaus62\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Open source frameworks and tools<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Spring dependency injection<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Everything is an object<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The JVM<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Enterprise creativity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
WebAssembly and the future of Java<\/h2>\n\n\n\n