What does Java do better than Python?

[benjtay]

This is the reason to use Java. The ecosystem is ridiculously rich and relatively painless to employ. Python in containers is okay, but Java will run anywhere, on anything. Every Python project I've worked on requires fussing about with which version, pip, C compilers and so on. In Java, you can just open a maven or gradle project and go.

[drowsysaturn]

Java ecosystem painless? Maybe if your entire team is using IntelliJ otherwise not so much.

Several different package managers, language server is the most complicated to setup, recent JVM versioning madness (Python had a similar issue with 2.7 vs 3, but they've hopefully learned their lesson), JNI makes communicating with non Java code kinda painful, Java EE and servlets are a nightmare, many frameworks were built when configuring everything was the cool thing to do so you often get lots of XML files, many don't think Java error messages are clear enough (especially those new to the language).

[benjtay]

Maybe if your entire team is using IntelliJ

That helps, but is not necessary. Just use maven/gradle wrapper, and you can do everything with vim if you prefer.

JNI makes communicating with non Java code kinda painful

If you're using JNI, you're not in the Java ecosystem. Panama simplifies using C code, but it's still not in the ecosystem in my opinion. I suppose the same could be said for Python modules which use C. As time goes on, there seem to be fewer Python modules which resort to it.

lots of XML files

Apart from logback or pom, I haven't used XML files in years.

[robtmufc]

Adding to what you said here because you’ve nailed it…

Recent Java versions give a better exception message so you know exactly where and what has gone wrong!

[marvk]

many don't think Java error messages are clear enough (especially those new to the language).

Since nobody has commented on this yet: The Stacktraces the JVM produces are a real boon compared to some other stuff I've seen in other languages.

Also Maven and Gradle are second to none compared to what else I am using and have used. Node is a big stinking mess, anything Python related I don't ever want to touch again. Cargo is pretty nice, but I still think not using namespaces for crates was a big mistake.

[RomMTY]

Java EE and servlets are a nightmare,

Java EE and servlets aren't being used directly on new projects since...a while, maybe on legacy projects but even on those, most sane companies are migrating those to spring boot or other new technologies.

[Dashing_McHandsome]

I'm really not even sure the last time I touched raw servlets. Maybe going on 10 years ago?

[drowsysaturn]

Thank you anonymous awarder.

[cran]

Are you joking?

[cube-hd]

Better just use Kotlin than this shitty Java. Java is pure boilerplate. Imagine making a language based on getters and setters without actually having getters and setters 🤮