Current Page: NeXtMidas Training Background Why use Java?
-   | Why use Java? Java is object-oriented. Makes it much easier to extend and reuse existing code. This results in less total code being written compared to C or Fortran. - Lower development and maintenance costs. Java's package naming scheme. This guarantees a unique namespace for all Java programs anywhere in the world. Any Java libraries on the internet can be downloaded and used without fear of namespace collisions. - Solves a common issue with sharing C and Fortran code. Java allows method overloading. This allows a single method name to be reused for different data types or different numbers of arguments. For example:
        public double myFunc(double a, double b);
        public double myFunc(double a, double b, double c);
        public float  myFunc(float  a, float b);
    Everything in Java is "stringable." Given a string, anything can automatically be appended to it using the plus operator (`+`). Numbers are automatically converted to strings. For example:
        String debug = "Pass="+i+"  CenterFreq="+freq;
- Easier to add debug information than in C or Fortran. Exceptions in Java have a stack trace. Every exception in Java comes with an automatic stack trace; it even specifies the line number in the source code that caused the exception. - Makes debugging a program much, much easier. Java is "platform independent." Though a few low-level differences still exist (such as path names differing between Linux and Windows), Java makes it easy to create a program that runs on any platform which has a JVM (Linux, Solaris, Windows, etc). - Minimal cost to support additional platforms.