You mean there are other languages than C?

Ha-ha!!!

Many languages take the cake in their own niche market (e.g., PHP in server-side scripting) - but for what I work on, C is the language of my choice.

I wouldn't say Java is the best language absolutely, but I'll give it my vote for 2009. I started looking into Java late in 2009, and I have found that I like the feel and style of it. I really like how it separates "interfaces" from "classes," which really helps conceptually during program design, and I think that would be a really good addition to a few other languages like C++.

I'm finding that Java applets are pretty fun also. For a while I had grown to hate the Internet after being burnt out on Javascript and PHP. Writing Java applets feels a lot more like real applications programming.

How much did Sun pay you?

Honestly though, I think that's probably the first positive endorsement of Java I've seen in 10 years

Heh, unfortunately no body cares that much about my opinion at the moment.

Just out of curiosity, what do you (or your friends) think is wrong with it? People around here seem to like it.

I'm pretty new to the language, but so far its seems pleasant to work with. Of course, it forces you to use OOP and good exception handling, but that's part of the philosophy of the language.

The only serious concern I have about Java, at the moment, is all the proprietary aspects of the implementation. Doesn't jive very well with my FOSS convictions.

I can't call myself a programmer so I probably shouldn't vote here, but I'm going to vote for lisp as that's the language I'd like to know.

Erlang is probably the most spectacular. Python is the best. But if it weren't for C, python wouldn't work. For doing fast and flexible, without a huge learning curve, python!

For fast coding and proof of concept purpose, modern languages like Java, C#, .NET and script based ones like Perl, python, PHP is fine. But when it comes to real implementation, I always find myself ending up in the good old C... esp. for graphics manipulations. I find working directly with bytes of pixels the most intuitive. Not sure about others but at least true for me <- Please translate this last sentence into "Please do not flame me :-)"

Well, to be brief:
1) Too much typing, especially if you have namespaces that involve methods with overlap of some kind.

2) Extremely bad version support - this even applies to massive companies like SAP, who requires very precise versions of Java to function (1.4.* for many portions of the server, 1.6 for other portions)

3) Frequently abused error/exception handling. Trust me - forcing people to use it only seems like a good idea. Lazy people find a way.
A bad try/catch uses up a lot of memory when someone decides to get sloppy with it.

4) Severe memory leakage/excessive garbage collection

5) Can be unfriendly with virtualization. I know I'll catch flak for this, but running a Java server instance in a VM (without doing some sysctl tweaks for clocks/timing) will result in the host processor running at nearly 100% while all the VMs think they're nearly idle. It can get so bad that it's almost impossible to even type at the CLI. I can find specific tuning messages and official tickets if people wish to get snippy

6) Widely variable end-user experience. The frontend experience the developer chooses doesn't mean much - the end user might get something that works very differently. Speed/Look/responsiveness varies widely. Especially bad with some of the notorious toolkits like Swing.

7) Complex language spec. Sun's spec is contradictory and often confusing, though it is possible to work around this with good libs and knowledgeable people.

8) Write Once Run Everywhere isn't. It's more like Write Once Runs Sometimes If You're Lucky. Deploying Java apps in the enterprise has made me wish it was never born. I'm always amazed at the ways it can go wrong when you try to get 15,000 people to use the same Java frontend.

Now, all of these are examples of things that *can* be bad, but obviously there are tons of well done Java apps out there too. It's just like C or Perl, or PHP. Excellent programmers produce excellent programs regardless of language... the converse is also true.

i voted on this topic, then it gave me the poll again. i think i voted twice.i'll just keep voting till they don't give me the poll. (just kidding, that's cheating!)

portamenteff, the system will only allow you to vote once (and I've confirmed this poll doesn't have any duplicate votes).

--jeremy

Anything not Java :}


While I admit that it has come a long way in terms of performance,
and has gotten rid of some of its stupidities since 1.3 it's still
a hog, and in my system guy mind-set my natural enemy.

java

C++

The one and only.

Every system that i develop with this lenguage, i love it more.

I'll vote for Perl and agree with Tinkster ....

Heeeey, where is Assembler?