This week, Daniel discusses the topic of Java's longevity. Languages are sort of like stars (the cosmic kind. Not the hollywood kind). There are giant clouds where new stars are born. Some of them will be fortunate enough to reach critical mass, and fusion will start in their cores. Others will never gain enough mass for fusion to start. For the ones that do gain critical mass, they shine very brightly... For a period of time. but eventually, they begin to die as they run out of fusion material. Like stars, no programing language can be expected to shine brightly forever. We cannot expect that Java will be any different. Not Java the language that is. But the story is different for the Java platform. Even as interest in the Java language declines, the Java platform is growing faster than ever. So what does the future of Java really look like? - Mike, Managing Editor
Will Java Die?
I seem to be living a theme this week, constantly running into articles and/or discussions regarding the future of Java. Most of these fall into one of two camps:
- There's the "Java's doomed everyone panic camp"
- …and there's the rose-colored "Java will live forever everyone sing"
This theme actually even carried over into a conversation I was having with the rest of the team here at DZone. We were discussing various technologies, and I casually voiced the opinion that Java is on the decline. Of course we've seen it before with other languages. Even the mighty C only lasted 20-odd years before being eclipsed by C++ and (shortly thereafter) Java. Java's just barely into its second decade and already we're seeing signs of age and dissatisfaction amongst its patrons.
I was just about to launch into a discourse on modern language features and what developers expect from a 21st century language, when Rick Ross cut across me with the statement that "Java isn't just a language, it's a platform." Considering the emphasis which has been put on this little factoid over the last few months, I'm surprised I had forgotten it. He's right; Java is much more than just the syntax which defines it. We've already seen dozens of languages either ported to or written specifically to run on the JVM. After all, VMs are hard to write, why not use someone else's? Efforts like JRuby and Scala show that regardless of the popularity of the Java syntax or even the underlying libraries, the platform itself will live on. But will it carry the language along with it?
What we're seeing today in Java is unprecedented (to my knowledge). We're beginning to reach a point where the popularity of the underlying platform is overarching the popularity of the language which necessitated it in the first place. This means that the situation is somewhat different from the other "language death scenes" we've witnessed over the past three decades. Could it be that Java itself may decline, but remain significant in a supporting role for other languages built on the platform?
At this point, I'd have to say that I really don't know. I've got to be one of three people left on earth who actually likes the Java syntax. I think it's elegant, expressive and pleasantly restrictive. However, even I'm sorely tempted by the whiles of hybrid functional-object oriented paradigms and extreme meta-programming. Really, the only way Java can hope to avoid fading into the mists of time may be in one (or more) of the languages designed to run on the JVM and interoperate with its libraries. Time will tell.