Re: C++ Speed Vs. Java
Ivan Novick wrote:
James Kanze wrote:
In the end, I think it comes down to something I said in another
thread: Java is a highly specialized language, where as C++ is
general purpose. If your application corresponds to the
specialization, it's probable that Java would be the better
solution.
Thats interesting... i would have said Java is more general and with C++
you can be more specialized.
In any given application, you can specialize C++ as much as you
want.
What particular specialization do you
see Java as fulfilling?
It tends to work well for small, high level applications which
are highly concerned with user presentation, but where absolute
reliability and robustness aren't necessarily issues.
(Java is particularly
inappropriate for large scale projects; even if it were twice as
fast as C++ here---and it's not---, the development costs you'd
save by using C++ would easily pay for the extra machines,
network speed, etc.)
That is also unexpected and interesting to me. What particular reasons
could make Java inappropriate for large scale projects?
The fact that you cannot separate the external specification of
the class and its implementation into separate files is almost a
killer. (The C++ solution here---header files, with textual
inclusion---is probably about the worst one you could think of,
but it's better than no solution, and with a bit of discipline,
works.) Trying to do any form of programming by contract tends
to be difficult as well---it requires using abstract classes
instead of interfaces, which in turn means that you cannot use
multiple inheritance.
The problem with Java is that it takes a particular development
model and programming paradigm, and elevates them to the
position of a dogma. If the development model is appropriate to
your application, and you don't need any other paradigms, then
Java is probably a better choice than C++, because you get
exactly what you need by default. If the development model
isn't appropriate (and it isn't for large projects, nor for
projects where reliability is an issue), or you need other
paradigms (and it's rare not to need more than one paradigm in a
large application), then you have a problem, because Java more
or less imposes its dogma. C++ sometimes frustrates me, because
all development models and all paradigms need some extra work up
front, but once you've done that work, they're there, and I've
yet to encounter a development model or a paradigm that I
couldn't make work in C++.
--
James Kanze (Gabi Software) email: james.kanze@gmail.com
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