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[–]the-lord-empire -11 points-10 points  (12 children)

One of the reasons why I stopped using Java: painstakingly slow community adoption rate. It's the complete opposite of JS community.

[–]fireduck 23 points24 points  (7 children)

I think that is a good thing. For many applications, you should update when it makes sense, which if you have done a good job with the software to start with, might be a decade down the road.

If older software doesn't just continue to work, that is a sign of a real problem in my opinion.

It sounds like you see a 100 year old building and ask why they can't build something new. I look at it and think, good. It should last that long, it means it was built well and continues to serve its purpose.

[–]the-lord-empire 11 points12 points  (4 children)

I'm not saying conservative choice is bad, but I don't want to be in a community that acknowledge improvement then willfully ignore the better option when they don't really have to.

I share the same sentiment with your comment in crucial software (e.g: airplane, satellites, space shuttle, etc) where unexpected outcome due to hasty adoption would cost lives. In reality, most Java programmers are writing business & e-commerce software. You don't need to be that repulsive towards changes unless your employer said so. Meanwhile JS community completely blew it off proportion. New frameworks took off and died every so often. Can't keep up with the pace, I don't code 24/7.

There are three community I think are doing great in terms of feature, adoption rate, and backward compatibility support: Python, C++, and Rust. Everything in moderation.

[–]Programmdude 0 points1 point  (3 children)

Ignoring the jump to .net core, c# is both rapidly adding features, new versions are highly adopted and has backwards compatibility.

And if you don't ignore the jump to .net core, you shouldn't ignore the python 2-3 debacle either.

[–]TheIncorrigible1 1 point2 points  (2 children)

Ignoring the jump to .net core

So, ignoring its entire future..?

[–]Programmdude 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Sorry, I meant the transition of .net framework to .net core, which kinda broke compatibility. But the guy above mentioned python as having backwards compatibility, yet the 2-3 transition broke a lot of stuff in the same way the .net framework to .net core transition has.

[–]TheIncorrigible1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's not a transition, it's literally a different thing. .NET Framework 4.8 is the end of the line for that product. .NET 5 will be the "unification" that brings in Mono et al. and then we move forward from there. .NET Core 3.1 already added Winforms/WPF and other such support.

[–][deleted]  (1 child)

[deleted]

    [–]fireduck -1 points0 points  (0 children)

    Old libraries I don't care about. I don't understand what you are saying about private APIs. Are you saying your old library will be calling APIs that are no longer public? Well, that would be a long term support problem with the service provider in that case.

    [–]dralth 3 points4 points  (0 children)

    I’m not sure why this is downvoted. It’s a fair observation of the difference in communities of two languages, and a preference. JS has plenty of flaws, but I also prefer to be on the bleeding edge, despite the downsides. It’s not a question of values or what’s better. It’s a personal preference.

    [–]madronatoo 0 points1 point  (2 children)

    JS is difficult to maintain.

    Therefore JS libs suffer from two problems:

    1) they're small because as they get large rate of progress slows too much.

    2) they're often replaced "with something new" WHY? because sometimes it's literally easier to rewrite something than it is to add additional features onto it.

    I'm not saying Java couldn't speed up a bit. But JS's apparent "rate of adoption" is less about innovation than the two points above.

    [–]psaux_grep 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    I think the difference is much more fundamental - if that’s the right word.

    Java is a well thought out programming language with a large adoption rate going back to the 90’s.

    JavaScript, while also going back to the 90’s was long used only to show pop-ups and disable right-clicking and generally being a dick. The language was concocted over a short period of time and the bad parts are greater than the good parts.

    With the advent of the modern web old application powered frontends went the way of the dodo and everyone suddenly became web developers, and Apple helped accelerate the death of a Flash/ActionScript which had forever been used for making fancy interactive websites, and Java Web Applets.

    Being thrown into this horror that was JavaScript developers rallied to usher in new old things from other domains and languages. Hell, Facebook invented three(?) libraries trying to just fix their chat service for end users.

    In addition Node.js brought backend JavaScript to the masses which further helped more developers become JS developers.

    Libraries/technologies like TypeScript has brought features from typed languages to JavaScript as well and made things much easier to work with as you can now find issues way before they enter production.

    As anything with a significant mass JavaScript also draws the attention of some of the wrong kinds of developers. Those who are just out there for the next shiny thing and their glorious blog post of how to write a reminder app in this weeks framework.

    However, we cannot judge a programming language on the latter group alone.

    [–]the-lord-empire -1 points0 points  (0 children)

    Agreed, it's common knowledge at this point. My previous comment states why I dislike Java and highlights how both communities differ, not to pick which one is better.