7 Reasons Why Java is Still Great

The spread of Java is one of the most fascinating phenomena in software. Java has made radical changes in the technology landscape as both a language and a platform, and its internal architecture has changed with it.

How has Java been a leader in both enterprise and open source software for over two decades?

Java Community Process (JCP)

Java began as an alternative to the traditional way of doing things a sort of upstart. Despite numerous challenges, it is now regarded as a pillar of enterprise software. 

What accounts for Java's ongoing relevance in the face of such radical change? 

• One critical factor is the community's passion, which is fostered through governance structures that engage developers to keep Java a living, dynamic force.

• Java's governance is a jumbled mess of competing interests and organizations that find their voice in the Java Community Process (JCP), and through Java Specification Requests (JSRs).

• At the end of the day, the JCP is a place for people who care deeply about Java technology to contribute and resolve conflicts. It is a perplexing mix of bureaucracy, policy, and creativity.

As a long-time Java programmer, I was surprised—amazed—to see the language successfully incorporate lambdas and closures. Introducing functional constructs into an object-oriented programming language was both controversial and impressive. Incorporating concepts introduced by technologies such as Hibernate and Spring into the official platform was also a challenge.

Open source frameworks and tools

Another major contributor to Java's success is its open-source architecture and the tools built around it. 

• Almost any need can be met by one or more libraries. If you like a project, chances are its open source and you can contribute to it. 

• When I needed to do some sophisticated process orchestration close to the metal, something similar happened. 

• I first discovered the NuProcess project, and then I was able to contribute a minor fix. Such exchanges enrich the life of a programmer.

• The Java ecosystem is rich in projects ranging from simple examples like the ones I've shared to database drivers and similar technologies. 

• Application servers such as Tomcat and Jetty, frameworks such as Hibernate, and even the Eclipse IDE are available. All of these are open-source projects that welcome contributions.

Spring dependency injection

Because Spring provides the same facility for writing custom code as it does for incorporating third-party code into your programs. 

• Spring's implementation of dependency injection and inversion-of-control not only allows you to standardize your internal components but also standardizes how third-party projects and vendors prepare their components. This ensures greater consistency in how these components are used in your programs.

• There are legitimate criticisms of Spring, and it is not always the best tool. Google Guice is another tool that works in the same way as Spring. 

• Spring, on the other hand, as a framework, introduced a clean and consistent way of provisioning and composing application components. That was a game changer at the time, and it is still relevant today.

Everything is a thing.

If the people who create and use Java are the wind that keeps the ship sailing, then the technical aspects of Java are the sails. It's impressive that the initial Java specification came from a single head (James Gosling's head) and has remained flexible enough to be relevant today.

• It is sometimes fashionable to dismiss this aspect of Java and object-oriented programming in the development landscape that currently favors functional programming. 

• The maintainers of the language responded by incorporating some functional programming languages. But they firmly believe that Java is a strongly object-oriented language in which everything is really an object.

• This design decision's absoluteness removes complexity and lends cleanliness to the language and programs that use it. 

• The mechanical elegance of well-written object-oriented code can be found in well-written Java programs.

The Java Virtual Machine

The JVM was a daring technical solution to the variety of runtime environments at the time of its development. Since then, it has occasionally appeared to be a burden of excess architecture and a source of performance issues. 

• However, after years of constant refinement, the technology has gradually proven itself.

• Virtual machines have recently become popular; they can be found everywhere, even at the most basic levels of cloud computing.

• When used in DevOps containers and serverless architectures, the JVM provides a well-defined deployment environment target with well-defined characteristics and controls. Modern Java virtual machines are also impressive.

Creativity in business

Organization and creativity are two powerful currents in software development. The only possible explanation for 25 years of work on a dungeon simulator is the spirit of creative joy. That creativity, combined with practical business applications, is the alchemy that keeps Java alive. A software project must allow for both long-term successes. Java has already achieved this.

Future of Java with WebAssembly

Let's mention one more potential game-changing event before we conclude: WebAssembly or WASM. There are now only a few Java features available in WASM, and the future is uncertain. 

However, Java may one day be used in browsers the way JavaScript is, with total access to the DOM and the browser API. Remember Java in the browser, but this time it's real. Stranger things have happened.