[Cialug] Java for Beginners

[Nathan Stien]

On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 2:28 PM, <joshstrobl at hush.ai> wrote:

> Hello guys, I am in programming class for C++, but want to make
> software that is orientated to not just Linux but Windows and Mac
> also (even though I despise both).
>

For my job, I write C++ software that has to compile and run on Windows, OSX
(Intel and PowerPC), Linux (i386), and Solaris (sparc).  So I can tell you
portability is not unique to Java -- in fact, just about every platform has
at least a C compiler so C is in that sense the *most* portable language.
For example, the GNU C/C++ compiler (gcc) runs on a vast number of
platforms, although I personally use Microsoft's compiler on Windows.

But we do have to compile different binaries for each of our target
platforms, whereas a compiled java program can be directly run on any
platform supporting java.  This is true to a lesser extent of compiled .NET
programs (written in say C#), many of which can be run directly on Linux or
OSX if Mono is installed.

Meanwhile I just saw Matt Nuzum's reply and he covered the rest of what I
was going to say.  Garbage collection is nice, as manual memory management
is a pain.  I particularly like Qt if you want a cross platform C++ GUI.

P.S.. I personally hate C++.  :-)

- Nathan
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