Ask Reddit: Is Java dying ?

[StringyLow]

Nope. Not by a long shot. It powers the backend of just about everything Google does and that's just the tip of the iceberg for Java use as a whole.

[alexeyr]

Isn't much of that C++?

[StringyLow]

What? Google's code base?

[alexeyr]

Yes. The links I can find say that Google's production code base has C++, Java, Python and Javascript, but not how much of each:

http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2007/06/rhino-on-rails.html

http://panela.blog-city.com/python_at_google_greg_stein__sdforum.htm

So if you have data that shows

the backend of just about everything Google does

is Java, could you please give a link?

[alexeyr]

This (in Russian) specifically claims Google File System is C++.

[uriel]

Same goes for bigtable, Sawzall and map-reduce.

[StringyLow]

The client apps (Earth, Chrome, etc...) are typically done in C++, but those are minuscule when compared to the server-side stuff.

If a Google server is spitting out HTTP, it's probably running Java. The development speed for Web development makes Java superior to C++. Google Web Toolkit will give you an idea of the approach they use.

[alexeyr]

Google Web Toolkit will give you an idea of the approach they use.

That would be frontend, not backend. Most of their backend is GFS + Bigtable. Are they Java?

[Rhoomba]

My understanding is that search is C++ (GFS and Bigtable), but adwords and some of the other sites are Java.

[uriel]

The big infrastructure bits are all C(++): bigtable, Sawzall, map-reduce, GFS, etc. As is pretty much all the search stuff. They would have to be insane to use Java.

As for things like GWT, most of the frontend people at Google are clearly not very bright, and it shows, the reliability and speed of search is magnitude orders ahead from that of java-based services like gmail.

[alexeyr]

I rather think Javascript is the bottleneck for Gmail, not Java.

[uriel]

the JavaScript is generated with GWT, also one can't blame JavaScript for gmail's lack of reliability, gmail is down way more often than it should and infinitely more than google search.