Namit Jaitly
Python and Java are two of the most commonly and widely used languages in today’s era. Both of these languages have advanced functions and help in creation of several important programs and web apps. However, students are often left confused on which language to learn or which language to start their program journey from, if not given expert guidance and a wrong decision can change their whole perspective of programming and it can be a decider for creation of a good or bad programmer.
When I wanted to start programming it was a big decision that I had to face on whether to start from difficult language to easy or from easy language to difficult. I was fortunate enough that I had professional from my teachers and Anuj sir. But sometimes the institutes don’t care about what is right rather what gives them more money. This is why I believe it is important to understand and learn through a right and well suited path, that makes you fall in love with programming and use to create software that are high-tech. In java and Python both the biggest difference was the syntax, python has minimum syntax whereas Java syntax is complex and more in comparison to python.
Besides having some very common differences this does not makes one language better than the other, it was told me from day one that all languages are essential in their respective fields and contribute a significant value o your projects and different software. Python is high level general purpose programming language that is used to making clear and logical codes with notable use of indentation for small and large scale projects. Created in late 1980s, Python has been at the forefront of exception handling, OOPS and Database management. Rather than having all of its functionality built into its core, Python was designed to be highly extensible (with modules). This compact modularity has made it particularly popular as a means of adding programmable interfaces to existing applications. Van Rossum’s vision of a small core language with a large standard library and easily extensible interpreter stemmed from his frustrations with ABC, which espoused the opposite approach. That said it is impossible to deny the wide range, and uses of Python for making simple and wide web applications.
It is very easy to use the language and code with all different conditional statements and loop functions, it looks easy, it looks cleaner, it looks explicit and ready to go. My experience with learning python has been very fun and full of excitement, with simplicity it has been incredibly fun and docile to create new functions and perform new abilities such as database and OOPS management.
On the other hand, Java which is another high-level, class-based, object oriented programming language was found in 1995 by Oracle Corporation’s developer James Gosling. Java has five primary features:
- Simple, object oriented
- Robust and secure
- Portable and neutral framework
- High performance rate
- Interpreted, and dynamic
With its long lists of features and incredibly flexible and high tech design Java becomes one of the widely used languages and has been used in many famous program developments such as NASA Wind, Google and android OS, Netfix, Spotify, LinkedIn, etc. Being used widely in so many applications Java has taken over the programming scene with its robust programming and secure framework which is not easy to hack. Oracle kept on updating Java with the times to maintain it as one of the best programming languages available and they have succeeded in doing that so far.
The syntax of Java is largely influenced by C++ and C. Unlike C++, which combines the syntax for structured, generic, and object-oriented programming, Java was built almost exclusively as an object-oriented language. All code is written inside classes, and every data item is an object, with the exception of the primitive data types, (i.e. integers, floating-point numbers, boolean values, and characters), which are not objects for performance reasons. Java reuses some popular aspects of C++ (such as the printf method).
After having gained some useful knowledge on these languages it comes down to choosing the ‘better one’. As a student myself, I faced this same problem, I wanted to learn a language that is at the top and has it all, but that is not the way to do things. It is important to understand that all languages have significant importance in their respective fields which makes them all equally important and useful. Hence it is best to do the language that best fits your field. If you are looking to develop apps and become a developer then you are better off starting from Java and understanding it from the basics. If you want to become a web developer and design web apps or websites with small or large interfaces Python will be better suited due to its database features and securing and using the information in the right way.
At the end, if you still are unsure about what language to study you should consult some expert or someone you trust. I have found home in IT and I hope you do too.
Written by Namit Jaitly
Web Development Trainee@NSPL RTC
Intern@NSPL