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Life As a Java/J2EE Programmer

Enter Java. Java is an object-oriented programming language that has its syntactic roots in C++. As

many of you are aware, Java’s strengths are far greater than its support for platform independence.

Java (as a language) cleans up many unsavory syntactical aspects of C++. Java (as a platform)

provides programmers with a large number of predefined “packages” that contain various type

definitions. Using these types, Java programmers are able to build “100% Pure Java” applications

complete with database connectivity, messaging support, web-enabled front ends, and a rich

desktop user interface.

Although Java is a very elegant language, one potential problem is that using Java typically

means that you must use Java front-to-back during the development cycle. In effect, Java offers little

hope of language integration, as this goes against the grain of Java’s primary goal (a single program-

ming language for every need). In reality, however, there are millions of lines of existing code out

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there in the world that would ideally like to commingle with newer Java code. Sadly, Java makes this

task problematic. While Java does provide a limited ability to access non-Java APIs, there is little

support for true cross-language integration.