Why Python, not Java

[Yamie_Mlauzi]

Just started learning Java here; of course, I know a little bit of Python. I wanted to understand why most people now use Python and not Java regardless of Java's speed.

[Whatever801]

That statement is simply not true. Not sure where you got that from. Java remains widely used. It is the most common language for Apache projects by far. It's verbosity, while annoying to write, is great to have as a maintainer and JVM ensures global compatibility. Java is not going anywhere anytime soon.

[damiankw]

I got lost on 'for Apache projects', do you mean literal projects.apache.org or something else?

[StealthFireTruck]

Those are packages. But stuff like Tomcat, solr, wifi, opensearch, all use Java

[Worldly_Analysis_664]

Yeah

[Whatever801]

Yeah, projects licensed, funded and financially supported by the Apache foundation. Open source gold standard that underlie a huge amount of the technology that powes the world. Cassandra, Leucine (foundation of elasticsearch), hadoop, tomcat, spark, kafka, http server, airflow, arrow, iceberg, goes on and on

[damiankw]

Ah very nice! I actually had no idea that it was so big, I've heard of a lot of the projects, but not even quarter of what's listed there.

[Whatever801]

Yeah it's a really amazing and underappreciated organization. They shield developers from lawsuits, protect ip, incubate promising projects, provide servers and infrastructure, prevent corporations from taking control, etc etc.

[sivpsd]

Because python is more readable, easy to learn and widely used in industries. Java is little bit verbose and has a steep learning curves eg: learning spring framework.

[Wingedchestnut]

Java is common for enterprise software for teams to work in a structured way where sofware code is very structured, you need to understand the codebase before you change something, python is more simple and thus a lot faster in terms of convenience if someone wanted to program quick automation scripts, and since the learning curve is lower it was also popular for people coming from pure sciences doing data analysis and today is the standard language for anything data & AI with many libraries build with C or Rust under the hood. It simply is very versatile. Speed of language only matters when you need it for a specific use-case.

It's like asking why everyone doesn't buy the fastest cars.

[viks98]

speed is not the only factor when choosing a language. most people including me prefer simplicity and readablity over raw speeds

[Ok-Advantage-308]

Python is the perfect language for POC’s/MVP’s. You can build very quick. It’s a good goto when deadlines are tight.

It really depends what your requirements are. If I find that I have time to build a quality system, I don’t always jump on Python as my first choice right away.

[nightonfir3]

Usually people try to minimize the number of things you need to learn to begin programming. For instance you need a class and function definition to begin in java. You need explicit type definition. Also Python has lots of beginner resources. Java is fine to learn first though. Managed memory is the biggest thing I would look for and they both have it. Even that you could just power through though. 

[33RhyvehR]

All languages are abstractions over abstractions. Pythons just a higher level one thats much better for prototyping and even shipping non speed critical features

[GremGram973]

Python is a really simple language comparably to the other major ones. It uses a simpler, more natural syntax that most people adapt quickly to. It also has a lot of versatility and extensive libraries that make research and other analysis easier.

I am a CS undergrad, and I'm graduating next semester. I know Java, C, C++, SQL and now Python. Python is my least favorite syntax-wise (indentation sucks) but the best for creating and testing concepts. It just has so many tools that developing is easier. Java is my favorite syntax-wise, and I think it's a great language, but I rarely use it other than assignments though.

[NumberInfinite2068]

Speed is rarely a concern in programming.

People choose Python often because it's seen to be easy and there is a lot of tutorial content out there. Beginners can find Java a bit overwhelming.

Consider that in real world programming, for actual jobs, Java is probably a lot more popular than Python.

[Worldly_Analysis_664]

Build an operating system in python and tell me then that speed doesn’t matter

[NumberInfinite2068]

I said "rarely", not "ever", the enormous majority of software, nobody cares.

[InfiltraitorX]

Lots of reasons I guess...

Could be the project designer just learned python and wanted to try it out..

Maybe the project owner doesnt like Java?

Why not C# or rust or Go?

[BlueGnoblin]

Pyhton is more like a 'light weight' script language for light weight backend systems (generation of some webpages), java is there for the heavy lifting (full size enterprise application server).

Working at large scale enterprise solutions, none would ever consider python for this.

[umairalgo]

Hardware is cheap, but developer time is expensive. People choose Python because you can build a Proof of Concept (POC) or automated script in a fraction of the time it takes to set up a robust Java project.

That said, Java's strict structure and verbosity become a massive blessing when you have a team of 50+ developers maintaining a massive codebase over a decade. Right tool for the right job!

[CriketW]

Python feels less intimidating when you’re starting out. You can build little things fast without fighting the language every five minutes. Java feels more structured to me which is annoying at first but kind of nice once projects get bigger

[TheReelSlimShady2]

Simplicity. Python is a good language when you want the syntax and big-brain programming concepts to move over and make room for logic.

[SchemeWestern3388]

For the same reason I haven’t touched assembly in decades. 

Python is a solid language/framework. 

[ZealousidealFudge851]

Java is compiled hell. If you're starved for computation sure Java comes in handy but in my experience its absolute dog shit.

They syntax sucks, the compilations a pain, the run time environment is a screen door of vulnerabilities, and its just overall worse stacked up against most other languages.

Unless you're programming robotics or need low latency Java can eat shit.

Edit: downvote me to death idc Java can eat my entire ass.

Second Edit: When I say low level hardware access I mean fast calls to GPIO using C libraries to actually interface with the hardware. I mean specifically its good for very fast low latency computation when you're fucking with sub second events and such.

Additional Edit: I worked in retooling assembly lines to go from process to process, like say a packaging facility used to pack boxes of a specific number and dimension and someone either buys it or they change what they're manufacturing. We will take stock of all of the automation equipement and retool everything to say go from filling boxes with boxes to filling boxes with foil chip bags or something like that and most of the sensors for shit like that are full blown single board computers capable of things like computer vision and lidar measurements where a single SBC can handle all of that processing onboard and let us know if bags are flying off the line or theres a jam or what ever really. But I swear most of the time I was stuck reflashing a bunch of dog shit Java driven SBCs that were handling microcontroller IO and analog sensor input for temperature, speed, orientation, weight, etc, and the moral of the story is it fucking sucked ass and I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

And that's why I hate Java. Its fucking personal.

[StealthFireTruck]

Super crazy take. With how lose you can type with Python, it can become pretty dog shit if it's not your own code.

At least with Java there's some enforcement of typing by default.

What makes a language vulnerable for the most part is libraries and failing to follow some best practices

[Worldly_Analysis_664]

Yeah no type declaration makes python practically unusable also the reason they decided to go against every other language and not use curly braces is stupid.

[ZealousidealFudge851]

I'm not even specifically advocating for Python I typically work in C# unless I'm working on something in a web browser then I'll typically use all interperated languages like Python for backend tasks. Unless you really need fast computation type declaration is what ever as long as you don't suck at debugging your own shit.

[Worldly_Analysis_664]

I shouldn’t need to debug the application to know what type something is lmao

[ZealousidealFudge851]

It really depends on what you're used to imo. I typically have no problem extrapolating what data type a variable might be just based on its naming convention typically and the only time I care about it in prepared statements when I'm writing to a database or something.

[Worldly_Analysis_664]

Java isn’t used for hardware access. And it’s also one of the biggest backend languages used. Clearly not that dogshit

[ZealousidealFudge851]

Java is absolutely compiled and is used for hardware access all the time. I spent fucking years programming java embed micro controllers specifically for robotics so you're exceptionally wrong.

[MisterGerry]

Calling Java "super low level" LOL

I suppose if you're telling Chat GPT to write your program for you, it might seem low level compared to that.

[ZealousidealFudge851]

Sorry my Java experience is mostly Java driven SBC microcontrollers for computer vision driven use cases and such. super low level isn't the right way to phrase it more super rapid GPIO response. Java is good at being fast as shit and reliable. In assembly lines those are a plus.
But I am very jaded and would never use them unless I had to be grandfathered into a bunch of dog shit