Skip Navigation
Is Java Still Keeping Up with Modern Programming Languages
  • Yes, i was part of the cult in my early days as programmer. I would endlessly create abstractions over abstractions. But the whole madness started for valid reasons.

    Im the early days of Java on the web, you had servlets and JSP. Servlets were miserable to write, and JSPs were basically the java interpretation of having a PHP. Those were the days before JSON and yaml, when XML was king.

    So people wanted to abstract their way out of JSP and XML, so they created layers to isolate the nasty parts and make it easier to write actual Java code. So a few ideas emerged/frameworks: ORMs, EJBs, Struts, JSF, template frameworks, and finally Spring which was the lightweight one, if you can believe it. A lot of those ideas coming from the Java world were exported into various other languages in a selective ways.

    People experienced with various patterns and frameworks. Eventually Spring won, and then Spring started to use annotations, JSON became more popular, etc., the code became less and less verbose.

    Some Java developers never made the mental jump and are still creating huge piles of abstractions because this is what they've learned from their seniors.

  • Is Java Still Keeping Up with Modern Programming Languages
  • Yes it does, the only parts where Java doesn't shine are usually some advanced features that are nightmarish for people who are building tools and libraries:

    • The type system is so 90s and it's kept like that for backwards compatibility.

    • Generics having type erasure is again an improvisation for the sake of backwards compatibility. It makes writing generic code in conjunction with Reflection painful.

    • The lack of control for the memory layout. I mean in most cases you dont need full control, but there are use cases where it's literally impossible to do optimisations that are easy to do in C/C++. You must have faith in the JVM and JIT.

    • Integration with native code is cumbersome.

    Other than that Java is fine for most backend work you need to do, except probably for Real Time Processing apps where every millisecond count, but even there there are ways.

    You use Java not for the languages itself, but for the tooling and the ecosystem.

  • What's the biggest change you would like to see in computing/tech?
  • For personal projects and prototypes i believe it's fine, but when you consume the electricity of mid-size countries just because you prefer to write your production code in convenient languages don't lecture others about ecology and climate change (i am not refering to you).

  • Programming As a Career Isn’t Right for Me
  • It's a little curse to be remotely passionated about programming and be a programmer nowadays. Some companies make it extremely dull and toxic with all their additional requirements and managerial practices. But there's hope, there are good companies or teams, and eventually if you stay long enough you will find your place.

    That was my case.

    The only lesson you need to learn is to make distinction between your interests, side projects and hobbies and the actual work you need to do ar work. If they overlap that's amazing, if not you need to adapt. You need to give the company what the company wants (so you can get paid), and to yourself what you want, so you can be fulfilled.

  • is Cinnamon sort of a shitshow?
  • For me the experience is different, but to be honest i am spending more time in the terminal and the browser than notifying what the DE is actually missing.

    I mean, i have panel on the bottom with the open apps, a few shortcuts, the network manager, the Bluetooth manager and the calendar. I am not missing anything.

    I also run Mint, and things were extremely stable for as long I can remember.

  • Deleted
    *Permanently Deleted*
  • They force you think of o(n) and train you better than anything else on how to write your functions (but not how to organise them).

    I have around 600 leetcode exercises solved, and there's a big difference in skill between the person i was before leetcode and the person i am now.

  • Do you have a RSS list with feeds from programming blogs you are reading?

    I am looking for old-school (html only, mininalist design) programming blogs, that are mainly focused on math, algorithms or systems programming. I also don't mind a few rants, movies or books reviews, but the content should be mainly technical. Preferred languages: C, C++, go, maybe Rust. Java or Kotlin are also cool as long as it is about the JVM, optimizations, but not Spring or Enterprisy stuff.

    For example: https://nullprogram.com/ would qualify perfectly.

    If not a list, maybe some links? A digital garden where you keep interesting articles it's also nice.

    I prefer quality over quantity, you know the type of content that usually gets upvoted on hn, without the corporate bullshit or angel investment stuff.

    7
    Splitting the Web
    ploum.net Splitting the Web

    Splitting the Web écrit par Ploum, Lionel Dricot, ingénieur, écrivain de science-fiction, développeur de logiciels libres.

    Splitting the Web
    31
    Red algae proteins grafted into tobacco double plant growth | Cornell Chronicle
    news.cornell.edu Red algae proteins grafted into tobacco double plant growth | Cornell Chronicle

    Cornell researchers have successfully transferred key regions of a highly efficient red algae into a tobacco plant to dramatically improve plant productivity and increase carbon sequestration.

    Red algae proteins grafted into tobacco double plant growth | Cornell Chronicle
    10
    The Worst API Ever Made
    caseymuratori.com The Worst API Ever Made

    A call-by-call look at context switch logging with the Event Tracing for Windows API.

    The Worst API Ever Made
    15
    Meet Val: A New Language Alternative to C++, Rust
    thenewstack.io Meet Val: A New Language Alternative to C++, Rust

    Val is a high-level programming language that runs close to the metal, said the language's creator Dimi Racordon.

    Meet Val: A New Language Alternative to C++, Rust
    11
    Antagonistic narcissism and psychopathic tendencies predict left-wing antihierarchical aggression, study finds
    www.psypost.org Antagonistic narcissism and psychopathic tendencies predict left-wing antihierarchical aggression, study finds

    Narcissistic individuals and those with psychopathic tendencies are more likely to strongly endorse left-wing antihierarchical aggression, according to new research published in Current Psychology. Antihierarchical aggression refers to a specific type of hostility aimed at challenging or opposing hi...

    Antagonistic narcissism and psychopathic tendencies predict left-wing antihierarchical aggression, study finds
    6
    InitialsDiceBearhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/„Initials” (https://github.com/dicebear/dicebear) by „DiceBear”, licensed under „CC0 1.0” (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)SI
    sizeoftheuniverse @programming.dev
    Posts 47
    Comments 44