Evan Summers's Blog

Pulp Dictionary: Top Ten Reasons to choose Java over um, C#

1. Beauty. Let's face it, using uppercase for method names is mental.
2. Free enterprise stacks, free frameworks, free IDEs, free everything! Buy now pay later.
3. java.net, jcp.org - you can brew Java.
4. Java is opensource - you can brew your own java.
5. Java is supported by all vendors, except Microsoft. So that's two reasons in one ;)
6. Swing, the sweetest GUI'est thing :) Just add Webstart.
7. Java runs Java, JavaScript, Ruby, Python and VisualBasic. And maybe a few more by the time you finish reading this ;)
8. Java runs on Linux.
9. Java runs on MacOS.
10. Java runs on your cell phone.

Please comment! Of course please don't be abusive towards other people eg. "Geoff, I'm going to rip your head off cos i don't like your head." (As in Withnail and I :)

Comments

• In case you were wondering, i have heard of Mono! But it doesn't come from um, microsoft. Although Microsoft and Novell are shacking up, so... Anyway, ideally, i prefer cross-platform inclusive options eg. java, which of course is officially supported on linux and mac. Even though i only use Windows these days (on my cheapie notebook). "Eet's nice." Ever since i upgraded from 512megs to 1.5gigs :)

  Posted by: evanx on November 05, 2006 at 05:22 AM

• Actually, if the "shacking up" of Microsoft and Novell produces results ... the only platform Mono will run on will be SUSE Linux ;)

  And I really hope Linus Torvarlds doesn't give Novell the right to use the Linux trademark anymore.

  Posted by: bonefry on November 05, 2006 at 06:06 PM

• Ups, I prefer Java to C# too, but this list is too biased. My list would be: 1. Maturity 2. Community 3. Libraries, Frameworks... 4. Choice 5. Open source 6. Multi-platform 7. Performance 8. Better documentation But there are reasons to choose .NET/C# too: 1. Nicer language. Yes, C# has an edge over Java: properties, events, delegates (look at anonymous one), using with IDisposable clause. But there are drawbacks too: structs in .NET are a disaster, explicit Interface Implementation too, generics is more flexible in Java, annotations too. But still C# has an edge.

  Posted by: mcekovic on November 06, 2006 at 02:05 AM

• Don't forget Java runs natively on FreeBSD too!
  FreeBSD Foundation Java Downloads

  Posted by: sord on November 06, 2006 at 11:55 PM

• I'm an avid Java user myself, but I think your picture is not completely accurate on some things.
  1. Very subjective but I do like the Java standard. Nothing prevents you from using it in another language except your peers.
  6. Is debatable, because even in the Java community we are devided into several camps Swing, SWT, JSF ( ;-) )
  7. And .NET as a platform supports all those and more.
  8 & 9 Mono is an open implementation that will run on those platforms, but they will never be first class citizens like Java is (save a few bugs/glitches)
  10. I remember having .NET mobile on a pocket pc once

  Posted by: bvansomeren on November 07, 2006 at 05:28 AM

• bvansomern, you're right, 7 is dodgy point, and 6 is very subjective towards myself since i am Swing developer, and 1 too (my personal dispreference C# caps method names, which i guess comes from Basic) - come to think of it, these are all subjective to myself, probably i cos wrote them ;) If i had done a Top 50, my Top 1 would have been "Because eets nice, I like it very very much!" ;)

  Posted by: evanx on November 07, 2006 at 05:52 AM

• Microsoft saw the way when sun rose .

  Posted by: javaniraj on November 07, 2006 at 06:02 AM

• Reasons to use Java over C#:

  JDBC is MUCH nicer than the C# counterpart
  .Net doesn't grok interfaces and how you're supposed to use them
  Checked exceptions
  Better collections and better concurrency tools
  More open source libraries
  More mature
  Better webservers, better performance/scalability
  Portability
  C# properties suck.. delegates are yucky (I like inner classes better)
  Stupid case convention
  Eclipse/Netbeans/IntelliJ are FAR superior to VisualStudio. I'm just blown away by the difference (this was surprising)
  I never turn off my web apps.. I develop them while they are running. It switches the classes dynamically (works for 50% of the time)

  Reasons to use C# over Java:

  WebForms is very nice.. definitely better than Tapestry.. probably better than JSF too. Just simpler to use!
  Probably better for windows programming
  Launching a web page doesn't take forever
  Can't think of anything else
  

  Posted by: dog on November 07, 2006 at 08:54 AM

• 
  javaniraj, you are a poet :)

  dog, i digg your nic and i digg your points for java and for C#. I confess i have never written a single line of C# code, but that doesn't say i don't try to, and want to, track and follow C# very closely, and understand eg. from colleagues such as yourself, where C# is very cool.
  

  Posted by: evanx on November 07, 2006 at 11:29 AM

• Thanks evanx ,
  I do know where C# or .net is cool.
  i want to share something that happened to me this week

  i was supposed to program for "shedule capture from pinnacle TV card 100i ".My jmf won't show any capture device i did VFWAuto and VFMmanual and i tried JDS and FMJ but all in vain
  only way left for me to migrate to c# or vb.net and work directly with microsoft direct show classes
  and brother it sucks when i have to buy every thing from microsoft even the developing environment.
  

  Posted by: javaniraj on November 07, 2006 at 09:40 PM

• java is not yet open-source.... when it become real Open-Source, we will do a lot of noise about that :)) but, for now, I do suggest you to remove that advantage from the list :(

  Posted by: felipegaucho on November 08, 2006 at 03:06 AM

• you're right felipe, i was jumping the gun there, and was aware that i was, but took some "poetic license" ;)

  Posted by: evanx on November 08, 2006 at 03:45 AM

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.