Java vs Python

Java vs Python

B

een in programming since my first semester. My first programming language ever learnt is Java. Well, actually before this I’ve been on Visual Basic when I was studying SPM ICT. But that time I had totally no idea on what I had learnt therefore I don’t consider that to be my first programming language ever learnt in my life (All the Visual Basic assignment were just copied and pasted at that time). After that, my life on programming became more challenging with the concepts of object-oriented programming and the application of data structure theory into programming. Then I learnt PHP, HTML, CSS, Javascript, a bit of C and C++. Now this semester I learn another two language which are UNIX shell scripting and Python. Err… I’m not quite sure whether the UNIX shell scripting can be considered as a programming language or not. Whatever! Now come back to the topic. Today’s topic is Java vs Python. The programming language that I have learnt since my first semester vs the programming language that I had just started learning (Not quite sure why Mr Azrul taught us Python and how is Python related to parallel computing). These are my perceptions and feelings towards these 2 fellows. Now let’s start this comparison with some aspects!

1.    First impression

Everything needs to have something to give others a good first impression. So as programming languages. These 2 languages are performing well in their display of their first impression towards me. I like these 2 languages.

The first time when I started learning Java, I remembered that I have to download quite a number of utilities in order to get Java to work. The most important thing is: These utilities are quite huge, with sizes of almost 100MB each. Nowadays Java SDKs are quite large compared to past days. Netbeans itself is quite huge also with size of almost 100MB. Because my house’s internet is not that fast so I really think that 100MB is quite huge to be downloaded. And of course my friends are not happy as the line will get slow and their games will be laggy and the ping increases.

On the other hand, python only requires 20MB of my disk space, which I think is quite convenient to get Python run on my pc compared to Java. Python comes with Python shell, which looks like UNIX shell for me. This semester I learn bash shell programming in UNIX as well. Users can enter commands in Python shell, similarly to command prompt in Windows environment. Therefore, in my opinion, Python owns Java in first impression.

2.    Hello World

My Hello World experiences on these 2 languages are different. On Java, I have to open a class (At that time I don’t even know what is a class) and set it to public then give the class a name.  Then inside the class, I have to open a main method. Then I can successfully print Hello World.

public class Hello_world {

 

  public static void main (String []args) {

       System.out.println (“Hello World”);

}

}

It was like: Wow! I can’t understand this! I begin to understand these sophisticated elements after I had learned object-oriented programming 1 year after my Hello World.

Meanwhile, my Hello World program in Python is way more simple than in Java. It takes me to write only 3 words to get the program works, which is Print (“Hello World”). That’s all! Simple is it? Therefore, Python owns Java in simplicity and convenience in coding and easy-learning.

3.    Simplicity

Simplicity is one of the important aspects that decides how the programming language ease programmers the most. I should take an example to make a clearer comparison. For example, reading for user input. In Java, I have to import the Scanner feature in order to make this happens:

import java.util.Scanner;

public class Hello_world {

 

  public static void main (String []args) {

       Scanner input = new Scanner (System.in);       

       System.out.print (“Enter your name”)

       String name = input.next();

       System.out.println (“Hello World” + name);

}

}

But in Python, it only requires two lines:

x = input (“Please insert your name”)

print (x)

Simple is it? Therefore, Python owns Java again in this.

4.    Flexibility

This is what Java wins over Python. Flexibility is an aspect where the code can be run even the code is in the wrong indentation or the codes are separated with unwanted blank spaces.

Java’s syntax for while loop enables the coding to be run without considering its indentation, as long as the coding that supposed to be run within the loop is within the curly brackets.

import java.util.Scanner;

public class Hello_world {

 

  public static void main (String []args) {

       while (true) {

System.out.println (“Infinite loop!!!!!”)

}

}

}

But in Python, the indentation is important. Wrong indentation indicates different meaning:

while 1:

  print (“Infinite loop”)

  print (“Infinite loop also”)

print (“Outside of loop”)

The indentation is important. Else, you won’t get the coding to work properly. Therefore, Java owns Python for flexibility

5.    Execution time

I used Netbeans all the while to do my Java projects. I touched a bit Eclipse also to study on Android programming myself. I noticed that Java is actually slow in execution time. It needs a long time loading before it can actually run. On the other hand, Python runs much faster than Java on this. I dunno is this related to simplicity of the syntax since Python’s syntax is simpler than Java. Therefore, again, Python owns Java in execution time.

6.    Real-time error detection

Most of the Java IDE such as Netbeans and Eclipse comes with real-time error detection where like Microsoft Office, a red line is displayed at the bottom of each wrong syntax or coding. This is quite convenient especially for long and complex coding where programmers can know where they have done wrong in short time.

Python, so far, do not have this kind of feature. Programmers can only know the error after they have run the code. It is not so convenient compared to real-time detection in Java.

            These are my perceptions towards these 2 programming languages. It doesn’t mean to be 100% correct as different people see things differently. The 2-4 score of Java vs Python doesn’t mean that Python is exactly better than Java as these 2 programming languages have their own advantages and disadvantages. The aspects discussed above are just a part of them. Therefore, everyone is free to choose what language he or she is going to use. That’s all for my article on comparison. Thank you!