Differences Between C and Java

If you are a C or C++ programmer, you should have found much of the syntax of Java--
particularly at the level of operators and statements--to be familiar. Because Java and C are so
similar in some ways, it is important for C and C++ programmers to understand where the
similarities end. There are a number of important differences between C and Java, which are
summarized in the following list:

No preprocessor

Java does not include a preprocessor and does not define any analogs of the #define,
#include, and #ifdef directives. Constant definitions are replaced with staticfinal
fields in Java. (See the [Link] field for an example.) Macro definitions are
not available in Java, but advanced compiler technology and inlining has made them less
useful. Java does not require an #include directive because Java has no header files.
Java class files contain both the class API and the class implementation, and the compiler
reads API information from class files as necessary. Java lacks any form of conditional
compilation, but its cross-platform portability means that this feature is very rarely
needed.

No global variables

Java defines a very clean namespace. Packages contain classes, classes contain fields and
methods, and methods contain local variables. But there are no global variables in Java,
and, thus, there is no possibility of namespace collisions among those variables.

Well-defined primitive type sizes

All the primitive types in Java have well-defined sizes. In C, the size of short, int, and
long types is platform-dependent, which hampers portability.

No pointers

Java classes and arrays are reference types, and references to objects and arrays are akin
to pointers in C. Unlike C pointers, however, references in Java are entirely opaque.
There is no way to convert a reference to a primitive type, and a reference cannot be
incremented or decremented. There is no address-of operator like &, dereference operator
like * or −>, or sizeof operator. Pointers are a notorious source of bugs. Eliminating
them simplifies the language and makes Java programs more robust and secure.

Garbage collection

The Java Virtual Machine performs garbage collection so that Java programmers do not
have to explicitly manage the memory used by all objects and arrays. This feature
eliminates another entire category of common bugs and all but eliminates memory leaks
from Java programs.

No goto statement

Java doesn't support a goto statement. Use of goto except in certain well-defined
circumstances is regarded as poor programming practice. Java adds exception handling
and labeled break and continue statements to the flow-control statements offered by C.
These are a good substitute for goto.

Variable declarations anywhere

C requires local variable declarations to be made at the beginning of a method or block,

while Java allows them anywhere in a method or block. Many programmers prefer to
keep all their variable declarations grouped together at the top of a method, however.

Forward references
 The Java compiler is smarter than the C compiler, in that it allows methods to be invoked
before they are defined. This eliminates the need to declare functions in a header file
before defining them in a program file, as is done in C.

Method overloading

Java programs can define multiple methods with the same name, as long as the methods
have different parameter lists.

No struct and union types

Java doesn't support C struct and union types. A Java class can be thought of as an
enhanced struct, however.

No enumerated types

Java doesn't support the enum keyword used in C to define types that consist of fixed sets
of named values. This is surprising for a strongly typed language like Java, but there are
ways to simulate this feature with object constants.

No bitfields

Java doesn't support the (infrequently used) ability of C to specify the number of
individual bits occupied by fields of a struct.

No typedef

Java doesn't support the typedef keyword used in C to define aliases for type names.
Java's lack of pointers makes its type-naming scheme simpler and more consistent than
C's, however, so many of the common uses of typedef are not really necessary in Java.

No method pointers

C allows you to store the address of a function in a variable and pass this function pointer
to other functions. You cannot do this with Java methods, but you can often achieve
similar results by passing an object that implements a particular interface. Also, a Java
method can be represented and invoked through a [Link] object.

No variable-length argument lists

Java doesn't allow you to define methods such as C's printf() that take a variable
number of arguments. Method overloading allows you to simulate C varargs functions for
simple cases, but there's no general replacement for this feature.

Java (programming language)

Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems

(which is now a subsidiary of Oracle Corporation) and released in 1995 as a core component of
Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but
has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities. Java applications are typically
compiled to bytecode (class file) that can run on any Java Virtual Machine (JVM) regardless of
computer architecture. Java is a general-purpose, concurrent, class-based, object-oriented
language that is specifically designed to have as few implementation dependencies as possible. It
is intended to let application developers "write once, run anywhere". Java is currently one of the
most popular programming languages in use, and is widely used from application software to
web applications.[9][10]

The original and reference implementation Java compilers, virtual machines, and class libraries
were developed by Sun from 1995. As of May 2007, in compliance with the specifications of the
Java Community Process, Sun relicensed most of its Java technologies under the GNU General
Public License. Others have also developed alternative implementations of these Sun
technologies, such as the GNU Compiler for Java, GNU Classpath, and Dalvik.

History
James Gosling, Mike Sheridan, and Patrick Naughton initiated the Java language project in June
[Link] was originally designed for interactive television, but it was too advanced. The
language was initially called Oak after an oak tree that stood outside Gosling's office; it went by
the name Green later, and was later renamed Java, from a list of random words. Gosling aimed
to implement a virtual machine and a language that had a familiar C/C++ style of notation.

Sun Microsystems released the first public implementation as Java 1.0 in 1995. It promised
"Write Once, Run Anywhere" (WORA), providing no-cost run-times on popular platforms.
Fairly secure and featuring configurable security, it allowed network- and file-access restrictions.
Major web browsers soon incorporated the ability to run Java applets within web pages, and Java
quickly became popular. With the advent of Java 2 (released initially as J2SE 1.2 in December
1998–1999), new versions had multiple configurations built for different types of platforms. For
example, J2EE targeted enterprise applications and the greatly stripped-down version J2ME for
mobile applications (Mobile Java). J2SE designated the Standard Edition. In 2006, for marketing
purposes, Sun renamed new J2 versions as Java EE, Java ME, and Java SE, respectively.

In 1997, Sun Microsystems approached the ISO/IEC JTC1 standards body and later the Ecma
International to formalize Java, but it soon withdrew from the process.[15] Java remains a de facto
standard, controlled through the Java Community Process.[16] At one time, Sun made most of its
Java implementations available without charge, despite their proprietary software status. Sun
generated revenue from Java through the selling of licenses for specialized products such as the
Java Enterprise System. Sun distinguishes between its Software Development Kit (SDK) and
Runtime Environment (JRE) (a subset of the SDK); the primary distinction involves the JRE's
lack of the compiler, utility programs, and header files.

On November 13, 2006, Sun released much of Java as open source software under the terms of
the GNU General Public License (GPL). On May 8, 2007, Sun finished the process, making all
of Java's core code available under free software/open-source distribution terms, aside from a
small portion of code to which Sun did not hold the copyright.[17]

Sun's vice-president Rich Green has said that Sun's ideal role with regards to Java is as an
"evangelist."[18]

Following Oracle Corporation's acquisition of Sun Microsystems in 2009–2010, Oracle has

described itself as the "steward of Java technology with a relentless commitment to fostering a
community of participation and transparency".[19]

[edit] Principles

There were five primary goals in the creation of the Java language:[20]

1. It should be "simple, object oriented, and familiar".

2. It should be "robust and secure".
3. It should be "architecture neutral and portable".
4. It should execute with "high performance".
5. It should be "interpreted, threaded, and dynamic".

[edit] Practices
[edit] Java Platform
Main articles: Java (software platform) and Java Virtual Machine

One characteristic of Java is portability, which means that computer programs written in the Java
language must run similarly on any supported hardware/operating-system platform. This is
achieved by compiling the Java language code to an intermediate representation called Java
bytecode, instead of directly to platform-specific machine code. Java bytecode instructions are
analogous to machine code, but are intended to be interpreted by a virtual machine (VM) written
specifically for the host hardware. End-users commonly use a Java Runtime Environment (JRE)
installed on their own machine for standalone Java applications, or in a Web browser for Java
applets.

Standardized libraries provide a generic way to access host-specific features such as graphics,
threading, and networking.

A major benefit of using bytecode is porting. However, the overhead of interpretation means that
interpreted programs almost always run more slowly than programs compiled to native
executables would. Just-in-Time compilers were introduced from an early stage that compile
bytecodes to machine code during runtime. Over the years, this JVM built-in feature has been
optimized to a point where the JVM's performance competes with natively compiled C code.
[citation needed]

[edit] Implementations

Sun Microsystems officially licenses the Java Standard Edition platform for Linux,[21] Mac OS X,
[22]
and Solaris. Although in the past Sun has licensed Java to Microsoft, the license has expired
and has not been renewed.[23] Through a network of third-party vendors and licensees,[24]
alternative Java environments are available for these and other platforms.

Sun's trademark license for usage of the Java brand insists that all implementations be
"compatible". This resulted in a legal dispute with Microsoft after Sun claimed that the Microsoft
implementation did not support RMI or JNI and had added platform-specific features of their
own. Sun sued in 1997, and in 2001 won a settlement of US$20 million, as well as a court order
enforcing the terms of the license from Sun.[25] As a result, Microsoft no longer ships Java with
Windows, and in recent versions of Windows, Internet Explorer cannot support Java applets
without a third-party plugin. Sun, and others, have made available free Java run-time systems for
those and other versions of Windows.

Platform-independent Java is essential to the Java EE strategy, and an even more rigorous
validation is required to certify an implementation. This environment enables portable server-
side applications, such as Web services, Java Servlets, and Enterprise JavaBeans, as well as with
embedded systems based on OSGi, using Embedded Java environments. Through the new
GlassFish project, Sun is working to create a fully functional, unified open source
implementation of the Java EE technologies.

Sun also distributes a superset of the JRE called the Java Development Kit (commonly known as
the JDK), which includes development tools such as the Java compiler, Javadoc, Jar, and
debugger.

[edit] Performance

Main article: Java performance

Programs written in Java have a reputation for being slower and requiring more memory than
those written in C.[26] However, Java programs' execution speed improved significantly with the
introduction of Just-in-time compilation in 1997/1998 for Java 1.1,[27] the addition of language
features supporting better code analysis (such as inner classes, StringBuffer class, optional
assertions, etc.), and optimizations in the Java Virtual Machine itself, such as HotSpot becoming
the default for Sun's JVM in 2000.

To boost even further the speed performances that can be achieved using the Java language,
Systronix made JStik,[28] a microcontroller based on the aJile Systems[29] line of embedded Java
processors. In addition, the widely used ARM family of CPUs has hardware support for
executing Java bytecode through its Jazelle option.

[edit] Automatic memory management

See also: Garbage collection (computer science)
Java uses an automatic garbage collector to manage memory in the object lifecycle. The
programmer determines when objects are created, and the Java runtime is responsible for
recovering the memory once objects are no longer in use. Once no references to an object
remain, the unreachable memory becomes eligible to be freed automatically by the garbage
collector. Something similar to a memory leak may still occur if a programmer's code holds a
reference to an object that is no longer needed, typically when objects that are no longer needed
are stored in containers that are still in use. If methods for a nonexistent object are called, a "null
pointer exception" is thrown.[30][31]

One of the ideas behind Java's automatic memory management model is that programmers can
be spared the burden of having to perform manual memory management. In some languages,
memory for the creation of objects is implicitly allocated on the stack, or explicitly allocated and
deallocated from the heap. In the latter case the responsibility of managing memory resides with
the programmer. If the program does not deallocate an object, a memory leak occurs. If the
program attempts to access or deallocate memory that has already been deallocated, the result is
undefined and difficult to predict, and the program is likely to become unstable and/or crash.
This can be partially remedied by the use of smart pointers, but these add overhead and
complexity. Note that garbage collection does not prevent "logical" memory leaks, i.e. those
where the memory is still referenced but never used.

Garbage collection may happen at any time. Ideally, it will occur when a program is idle. It is
guaranteed to be triggered if there is insufficient free memory on the heap to allocate a new
object; this can cause a program to stall momentarily. Explicit memory management is not
possible in Java.

Java does not support C/C++ style pointer arithmetic, where object addresses and unsigned
integers (usually long integers) can be used interchangeably. This allows the garbage collector to
relocate referenced objects and ensures type safety and security.

As in C++ and some other object-oriented languages, variables of Java's primitive data types are
not objects. Values of primitive types are either stored directly in fields (for objects) or on the
stack (for methods) rather than on the heap, as commonly true for objects (but see Escape
analysis). This was a conscious decision by Java's designers for performance reasons. Because of
this, Java was not considered to be a pure object-oriented programming language. However, as
of Java 5.0, autoboxing enables programmers to proceed as if primitive types were instances of
their wrapper class.

[edit] Syntax
Main article: Java syntax

The syntax of Java is largely derived from C++. Unlike C++, which combines the syntax for
structured, generic, and object-oriented programming, Java was built almost exclusively as an
object-oriented language. All code is written inside a class, and everything is an object, with the
exception of the intrinsic data types (ordinal and real numbers, boolean values, and characters),
which are not classes for performance reasons.

Java suppresses several features (such as operator overloading and multiple inheritance) for
classes in order to simplify the language and to prevent possible errors and anti-pattern design.

Java uses similar commenting methods to C++. There are three different styles of comment: a
single line style marked with two slashes (//), a multiple line style opened with a slash asterisk
(/*) and closed with an asterisk slash (*/), and the Javadoc commenting style opened with a slash
and two asterisks (/**) and closed with an asterisk slash (*/). The Javadoc style of commenting
allows the user to run the Javadoc executable to compile documentation for the program.

Example:

// This is an example of a single line comment using two slashes

/* This is an example of a multiple line comment using the slash and asterisk.
This type of comment can be used to hold a lot of information or deactivate
 code but it is very important to remember to close the comment. */

/**
* This is an example of a Javadoc comment; Javadoc can compile documentation
* from this text.
*/

[edit] Examples
[edit] Hello world

The traditional Hello world program can be written in Java as:

// Outputs "Hello, world!" and then exits

public class HelloWorld {
public static void main(String[] args) {
[Link]("Hello, world!");
}
}

To compare this to other programming languages see the list of hello world program examples.

Source files must be named after the public class they contain, appending the suffix .java, for
example, [Link]. It must first be compiled into bytecode, using a Java compiler,
producing a file named [Link]. Only then can it be executed, or 'launched'. The java
source file may only contain one public class but can contain multiple classes with less than
public access and any number of public inner classes.

A class that is not declared public may be stored in any .java file. The compiler will generate a
class file for each class defined in the source file. The name of the class file is the name of the
class, with .class appended. For class file generation, anonymous classes are treated as if their
name were the concatenation of the name of their enclosing class, a $, and an integer.

The keyword public denotes that a method can be called from code in other classes, or that a
class may be used by classes outside the class hierarchy. The class hierarchy is related to the
name of the directory in which the .java file is located.

The keyword static in front of a method indicates a static method, which is associated only
with the class and not with any specific instance of that class. Only static methods can be
invoked without a reference to an object. Static methods cannot access any method variables that
are not static.

The keyword void indicates that the main method does not return any value to the caller. If a
Java program is to exit with an error code, it must call [Link]() explicitly.

The method name "main" is not a keyword in the Java language. It is simply the name of the
method the Java launcher calls to pass control to the program. Java classes that run in managed
environments such as applets and Enterprise JavaBean do not use or need a main() method. A
java program may contain multiple classes that have main methods, which means that the VM
needs to be explicitly told which class to launch from.

The main method must accept an array of String objects. By convention, it is referenced as
args although any other legal identifier name can be used. Since Java 5, the main method can
also use variable arguments, in the form of public static void main(String... args),
allowing the main method to be invoked with an arbitrary number of String arguments. The
effect of this alternate declaration is semantically identical (the args parameter is still an array of
String objects), but allows an alternative syntax for creating and passing the array.

The Java launcher launches Java by loading a given class (specified on the command line or as
an attribute in a JAR) and starting its public static void main(String[]) method. Stand-
alone programs must declare this method explicitly. The String[] args parameter is an array
of String objects containing any arguments passed to the class. The parameters to main are
often passed by means of a command line.
Printing is part of a Java standard library: The System class defines a public static field called
out. The out object is an instance of the PrintStream class and provides many methods for
printing data to standard out, including println(String) which also appends a new line to the
passed string.

The string "Hello, world!" is automatically converted to a String object by the compiler.

[edit] A more comprehensive example

// [Link]
import [Link];

public class OddEven {

// "input" is the number that the user gives to the computer
private int input; // a whole number("int" means integer)

/*
* This is the constructor method. It gets called when an object of the
OddEven type
* is being created.
*/
public OddEven() {
/*
* Code not shown for simplicity. In most Java programs constructors can
initialize objects
* with default values, or create other objects that this object might use
to perform its
* functions. In some Java programs, the constructor may simply be an
empty function if nothing
* needs to be initialized prior to the functioning of the object. In
this program's case, an
* empty constructor would suffice, even if it is empty. A constructor
must exist, however if the
* user doesn't put one in then the compiler will create an empty one.
*/
}

// This is the main method. It gets called when this class is run through
a Java interpreter.
public static void main(String[] args) {
/*
* This line of code creates a new instance of this class called
"number" (also known as an
* Object) and initializes it by calling the constructor. The next
line of code calls
* the "showDialog()" method, which brings up a prompt to ask you for
a number
*/
OddEven number = new OddEven();
[Link]();
}

public void showDialog() {

/*
* "try" makes sure nothing goes wrong. If something does,
* the interpreter skips to "catch" to see what it should do.
*/
try {
/*
* The code below brings up a JOptionPane, which is a dialog box
* The String returned by the "showInputDialog()" method is
converted into
* an integer, making the program treat it as a number instead of
a word.
* After that, this method calls a second method, calculate() that
will
* display either "Even" or "Odd."
*/
input = [Link]([Link]("Please Enter
A Number"));
calculate();
} catch (NumberFormatException e) {
/*
* Getting in the catch block means that there was a problem with
the format of
 * the number. Probably some letters were typed in instead of a
number.
*/
[Link]("ERROR: Invalid input. Please type in a
numerical value.");
}
}

/*
* When this gets called, it sends a message to the interpreter.
* The interpreter usually shows it on the command prompt (For Windows
users)
* or the terminal (For Linux users).(Assuming it's open)
*/
private void calculate() {
if (input % 2 == 0) {
[Link]("Even");
} else {
[Link]("Odd");
}
}
}

 The import statement imports the JOptionPane class from the [Link] package.
 The OddEven class declares a single private field of type int named input. Every instance of
the OddEven class has its own copy of the input field. The private declaration means that no
other class can access (read or write) the input field.
 OddEven() is a public constructor. Constructors have the same name as the enclosing class
they are declared in, and unlike a method, have no return type. A constructor is used to initialize
an object that is a newly created instance of the class.
 The calculate() method is declared without the static keyword. This means that the
method is invoked using a specific instance of the OddEven class. (The reference used to invoke
the method is passed as an undeclared parameter of type OddEven named this.) The method
tests the expression input % 2 == 0 using the if keyword to see if the remainder of dividing
the input field belonging to the instance of the class by two is zero. If this expression is true,
then it prints Even; if this expression is false it prints Odd. (The input field can be equivalently
accessed as [Link], which explicitly uses the undeclared this parameter.)
 OddEven number = new OddEven(); declares a local object reference variable in the main
method named number. This variable can hold a reference to an object of type OddEven. The
declaration initializes number by first creating an instance of the OddEven class, using the new
keyword and the OddEven() constructor, and then assigning this instance to the variable.
 The statement [Link](); calls the calculate method. The instance of OddEven
object referenced by the number local variable is used to invoke the method and passed as the
undeclared this parameter to the calculate method.
 input = [Link]([Link]("Please Enter A
Number")); is a statement that converts the type of String to the primitive data type int by
using a utility function in the primitive wrapper class Integer.

[edit] Special classes

[edit] Applet
Main article: Java applet

Java applets are programs that are embedded in other applications, typically in a Web page
displayed in a Web browser.

// [Link]
import [Link];
import [Link];

public class Hello extends JApplet {

@Override
public void paint(Graphics g) {
[Link]("Hello, world!", 65, 95);
}

}
The import statements direct the Java compiler to include the [Link] and
[Link] classes in the compilation. The import statement allows these classes to be
referenced in the source code using the simple class name (i.e. JApplet) instead of the fully
qualified class name (i.e. [Link]).

The Hello class extends (subclasses) the JApplet (Java Applet) class; the JApplet class
provides the framework for the host application to display and control the lifecycle of the applet.
The JApplet class is a JComponent (Java Graphical Component) which provides the applet with
the capability to display a graphical user interface (GUI) and respond to user events.

The Hello class overrides the paintComponent(Graphics) method inherited from the
Container superclass to provide the code to display the applet. The paintComponent() method
is passed a Graphics object that contains the graphic context used to display the applet. The
paintComponent() method calls the graphic context drawString(String, int, int) method
to display the "Hello, world!" string at a pixel offset of (65, 95) from the upper-left corner in
the applet's display.

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"

"[Link]
<!-- [Link] -->
<html>
<head>
<title>Hello World Applet</title>
</head>
<body>
<applet code="Hello" width="200" height="200">
</applet>
</body>
</html>

An applet is placed in an HTML document using the <applet> HTML element. The applet tag
has three attributes set: code="Hello" specifies the name of the JApplet class and
width="200" height="200" sets the pixel width and height of the applet. Applets may also be
embedded in HTML using either the object or embed element,[32] although support for these
elements by Web browsers is inconsistent.[33] However, the applet tag is deprecated, so the
object tag is preferred where supported.

The host application, typically a Web browser, instantiates the Hello applet and creates an
AppletContext for the applet. Once the applet has initialized itself, it is added to the AWT
display hierarchy. The paintComponent() method is called by the AWT event dispatching
thread whenever the display needs the applet to draw itself.

[edit] Servlet
Main article: Java Servlet

Java Servlet technology provides Web developers with a simple, consistent mechanism for
extending the functionality of a Web server and for accessing existing business systems. Servlets
are server-side Java EE components that generate responses (typically HTML pages) to requests
(typically HTTP requests) from clients. A servlet can almost be thought of as an applet that runs
on the server side—without a face.

// [Link]
import [Link].*;
import [Link].*;

public class Hello extends GenericServlet {

public void service(ServletRequest request, ServletResponse response)
throws ServletException, IOException {
[Link]("text/html");
final PrintWriter pw = [Link]();
[Link]("Hello, world!");
[Link]();
}
}
The import statements direct the Java compiler to include all of the public classes and interfaces
from the [Link] and [Link] packages in the compilation.

The Hello class extends the GenericServlet class; the GenericServlet class provides the
interface for the server to forward requests to the servlet and control the servlet's lifecycle.

The Hello class overrides the service(ServletRequest, ServletResponse) method defined

by the Servlet interface to provide the code for the service request handler. The service()
method is passed a ServletRequest object that contains the request from the client and a
ServletResponse object used to create the response returned to the client. The service()
method declares that it throws the exceptions ServletException and IOException if a
problem prevents it from responding to the request.

The setContentType(String) method in the response object is called to set the MIME content
type of the returned data to "text/html". The getWriter() method in the response returns a
PrintWriter object that is used to write the data that is sent to the client. The println(String)
method is called to write the "Hello, world!" string to the response and then the close()
method is called to close the print writer, which causes the data that has been written to the
stream to be returned to the client.

[edit] JavaServer Pages

Main article: JavaServer Pages

JavaServer Pages (JSP) are server-side Java EE components that generate responses, typically
HTML pages, to HTTP requests from clients. JSPs embed Java code in an HTML page by using
the special delimiters <% and %>. A JSP is compiled to a Java servlet, a Java application in its
own right, the first time it is accessed. After that, the generated servlet creates the response.

[edit] Swing application

Main article: Swing (Java)

Swing is a graphical user interface library for the Java SE platform. It is possible to specify a
different look and feel through the pluggable look and feel system of Swing. Clones of
Windows, GTK+ and Motif are supplied by Sun. Apple also provides an Aqua look and feel for
Mac OS X. Where prior implementations of these looks and feels may have been considered
lacking, Swing in Java SE 6 addresses this problem by using more native GUI widget drawing
routines of the underlying platforms.

This example Swing application creates a single window with "Hello, world!" inside:

// [Link] (Java SE 5)
import [Link].*;

public class Hello extends JFrame {

public Hello() {
super("hello");
setDefaultCloseOperation(WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
add(new JLabel("Hello, world!"));
pack();
}

public static void main(String[] args) {

new Hello().setVisible(true);
}
}

The first import includes all of the public classes and interfaces from the [Link] package.

The Hello class extends the JFrame class; the JFrame class implements a window with a title
bar and a close control.

The Hello() constructor initializes the frame by first calling the superclass constructor, passing
the parameter "hello", which is used as the window's title. It then calls the
setDefaultCloseOperation(int) method inherited from JFrame to set the default operation
when the close control on the title bar is selected to WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE — this
causes the JFrame to be disposed of when the frame is closed (as opposed to merely hidden),
which allows the JVM to exit and the program to terminate. Next, a JLabel is created for the
string "Hello, world!" and the add(Component) method inherited from the Container
superclass is called to add the label to the frame. The pack() method inherited from the Window
superclass is called to size the window and lay out its contents.

The main() method is called by the JVM when the program starts. It instantiates a new Hello
frame and causes it to be displayed by calling the setVisible(boolean) method inherited from
the Component superclass with the boolean parameter true. Once the frame is displayed, exiting
the main method does not cause the program to terminate because the AWT event dispatching
thread remains active until all of the Swing top-level windows have been disposed.

[edit] Generics
Main article: Generics in Java

In 2004 generics were added to the Java language, as part of J2SE 5.0. Prior to the introduction
of generics, each variable declaration had to be of a specific type. For container classes, for
example, this is a problem because there is no easy way to create a container that accepts only
specific types of objects. Either the container operates on all subtypes of a class or interface,
usually Object, or a different container class has to be created for each contained class. Generics
allow compile-time type checking without having to create a large number of container classes,
each containing almost identical code.

[edit] Critical analysis

Further information: Criticism of Java

[edit] Class libraries

Java Platform and Class libraries diagram

 Java libraries are the compiled bytecodes of source code developed by the JRE implementor to
support application development in Java. Examples of these libraries are:
o The core libraries, which include:
 Collection libraries that implement data structures such as lists, dictionaries,
trees and sets
 XML Processing (Parsing, Transforming, Validating) libraries
 Security
 Internationalization and localization libraries
o The integration libraries, which allow the application writer to communicate with
external systems. These libraries include:
 The Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) API for database access
 Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI) for lookup and discovery
 RMI and CORBA for distributed application development
 JMX for managing and monitoring applications
 o User interface libraries, which include:
 The (heavyweight, or native) Abstract Window Toolkit (AWT), which provides
GUI components, the means for laying out those components and the means for
handling events from those components
 The (lightweight) Swing libraries, which are built on AWT but provide (non-
native) implementations of the AWT widgetry
 APIs for audio capture, processing, and playback
 A platform dependent implementation of Java Virtual Machine (JVM) that is the means by which
the byte codes of the Java libraries and third party applications are executed
 Plugins, which enable applets to be run in Web browsers
 Java Web Start, which allows Java applications to be efficiently distributed to end-users across
the Internet
 Licensing and documentation.

[edit] Documentation
Main article: Javadoc

Javadoc is a comprehensive documentation system, created by Sun Microsystems, used by many

Java developers. It provides developers with an organized system for documenting their code.
Whereas normal comments in Java and C are set off with /* and */, the multi-line comment tags,
Javadoc comments have an extra asterisk at the beginning, so that the tags are /** and */.

[edit] Editions
See also: Free Java implementations#Class library

Java editions Sun has defined and supports four editions of Java
targeting different application environments and
Java Card segmented many of its APIs so that they belong to one of
the platforms. The platforms are:
Micro Edition (ME)
 Java Card for smartcards.
Standard Edition (SE)  Java Platform, Micro Edition (Java ME) — targeting
environments with limited resources.
Enterprise Edition (EE)
 Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE) — targeting
workstation environments.
 Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) — targeting
PersonalJava (discontinued)
large distributed enterprise or Internet environments.

The classes in the Java APIs are organized into separate groups called packages. Each package
contains a set of related interfaces, classes and exceptions. Refer to the separate platforms for a
description of the packages available.

The set of APIs is controlled by Sun Microsystems in cooperation with others through the Java
Community Process program. Companies or individuals participating in this process can
influence the design and development of the APIs. This process has been a subject of
controversy.

Sun also provided an edition called PersonalJava that has been superseded by later, standards-
based Java ME configuration-profile pairings.

Comparison of Java and C++

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Design aims
The differences between the C++ and Java programming languages can be traced to their
heritage, as they have different design goals.
  C++ was designed mainly for systems programming, extending the C programming language. To
this procedural programming language designed for efficient execution, C++ has added support
for statically-typed object-oriented programming, exception handling, scoped resource
management, and generic programming, in particular. It also added a standard library which
includes generic containers and algorithms.
 Java was created initially to support network computing. It relies on a virtual machine to be
secure and highly portable. It is bundled with an extensive library designed to provide a
complete abstraction of the underlying platform. Java is a statically typed object-oriented
language that uses a syntax similar to C, but is not compatible with it. It was designed from
scratch, with the goal of being easy to use and accessible to a wider audience.

The different goals in the development of C++ and Java resulted in different principles and
design trade-offs between the languages. The differences are as follows :

C++ Java

No backward compatibility with any previous

Compatible with C source code, except for a few
language. The syntax is however strongly influenced
corner cases.
by C/C++.

Write once run anywhere / everywhere (WORA /

Write once compile anywhere (WOCA)
WORE)

Allows both procedural programming and object- Encourages an object oriented programming
oriented programming. paradigm.

Call through the Java Native Interface and recently

Allows direct calls to native system libraries.
Java Native Access

Exposes low-level system facilities. Runs in a protected virtual machine.

Is reflective, allowing metaprogramming and

Only provides object types and type names.
dynamic code generation at runtime.

Has multiple binary compatibility standards Has a binary compatibility standard, allowing
(commonly Microsoft and Itanium/GNU) runtime check of correctness of libraries.

Optional automated bounds checking. (e.g. the Normally performs bounds checking. HotSpot can
at() method in vector and string containers) remove bounds checking.

Supports native unsigned arithmetic. No native support for unsigned arithmetic.

Standardized minimum limits for all numerical

types, but the actual sizes are implementation- Standardized limits and sizes of all primitive types
defined. Standardized types are available as on all platforms.
typedefs (uint8_t, ..., uintptr_t).

Primitive data types always passed by value. Objects

Pointers, References, and pass by value are are passed by nullable reference (comparable to
supported using pointers for all class or struct parameters
in C++).[1]

Explicit memory management, though third party Automatic garbage collection (can be triggered
frameworks exist to provide garbage collection. manually). Doesn't have the concept of Destructor
Supports destructors. and usage of finalize() is not recommended.

Supports only class and allocates them on the heap.

Supports class, struct, and union and can allocate
Java SE 6 optimizes with escape analysis to allocate
them on heap or stack
some objects on the stack.

Allows explicitly overriding types. Rigid type safety except for widening conversions.
 Autoboxing/Unboxing added in Java 1.5.

The standard library has grown with each release.

The C++ Standard Library has a much more limited By version 1.6 the library included support for
scope and functionality than the Java standard locales, logging, containers and iterators,
library but includes: Language support, Diagnostics, algorithms, GUI programming (but not using the
General Utilities, Strings, Locales, Containers, system GUI), graphics, multi-threading, networking,
Algorithms, Iterators, Numerics, Input/Output and platform security, introspection, dynamic class
Standard C Library. The Boost library offers much loading, blocking and non-blocking I/O, and
more functionality including threads and network provided interfaces or support classes for XML,
I/O. Users must choose from a plethora of (mostly XSLT, MIDI, database connectivity, naming services
mutually incompatible) third-party libraries for GUI (e.g. LDAP), cryptography, security services (e.g.
and other functionality. Kerberos), print services, and web services. SWT
offers an abstraction for platform specific GUIs.

The meaning of operators is generally immutable,

Operator overloading for most operators however the + and += operators have been
overloaded for Strings.

Full multiple inheritance, including virtual Single inheritance only from classes, multiple from
inheritance. interfaces.

Generics are used to achieve an analogous effect to

C++ templates, however they do not translate from
Compile time Templates
source code to byte code due to the use of Type
Erasure by the compiler.

No function pointer mechanism. Instead idioms

Function pointers, function objects, lambdas (in C+
such as Interfaces, Adapters and Listeners are
+0x) and interfaces
extensively used.

No standard inline documentation mechanism. 3rd

Javadoc standard documentation
party software (e.g. Doxygen) exists.

final provides a limited version of const,

const keyword for defining immutable variables equivalent to type* const pointers for objects and
and member functions that do not change the plain const of primitive types only. No const
object. member functions, nor any equivalent to const
type* pointers.

Supports the goto statement. Supports labels with loops and statement blocks.

Source code can be written to be platform

independent (can be compiled for Windows, BSD, Is compiled into byte code for the JVM. Is
Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris etc. without needing dependent on the Java platform but the source
modification) and written to take advantage of code is typically written not to be dependent on
platform specific features. Is typically compiled into operating system specific features.
native machine code.

C++ is a powerful language designed for system programming. The Java language was designed
to be simple and easy to learn with a powerful cross-platform library. The Java standard library
is considerably large for a standard library. However, Java does not always provide full access to
the features and performance of the platform that the software runs on. The C++ standard
libraries are simple and robust providing containers and associative arrays.[2]

[edit] Language features

[edit] Syntax

 Java syntax has a context-free grammar which can be parsed by a simple LALR parser. Parsing C+
+ is somewhat more complicated; for example, Foo<1>(3); is a sequence of comparisons if
Foo is a variable, but it creates an object if Foo is the name of a class template.
 C++ allows namespace level constants, variables, and functions. All such Java declarations must
be inside a class or interface.
 In C++ declarations, a class name declares an object of that class as a value (a.k.a. value
semantics). There is no way to do this in Java. Objects are not values in Java. In Java
declarations, a class name declares a reference to an object of that class (a.k.a. reference
semantics). The equivalent way to do this in C++ is to use "*" to declare a pointer.
 In C++, the operator "." takes an object as the left operand and accesses a member of the
object. Since objects cannot be values in Java, and all objects are accessed through references,
this cannot be done in Java. In Java, the "." operator takes a reference to an object as the left
operand and access a member of that object. The equivalent operator in C++ is "->".

C++ Java

class Foo { // Declares

class Foo { // Defines
class Foo
class Foo
public:
public int x = 0; // Member
int x; // Member
variable,
variable
// with
initializer
Foo(): x(0) { // Constructor
public Foo() { // Constructor
for Foo,
for Foo
} // initializes
}
x
public int bar(int i) {// Member
int bar(int i) { // Member
method bar()
function bar()
return 3*i + x;
return 3*i + x;
}
}
}
};
Foo a;
Foo a;
// declares a to be a reference to a Foo
// declares a to be a Foo object
object
value,
a = new Foo();
// initialized using the default
// initializes using the default
constructor
constructor
// If you wanted to use another
// If you wanted to use another
constructor,
constructor,
// you would declare it as "Foo
// you would declare it as "Foo a = new
a(args);"
Foo(args);"
Foo b = [Link]();
Foo b = a; // copies the values of all members
// copies the contents of a to a new // of this instance if, and only if,
Foo object b; // Foo implements a public method called
// alternative syntax is "Foo b(a)" // clone() which returns a new copy of
the object
a.x = 5; // modifies the object a a.x = 5; // modifies the object a
cout << b.x << endl; [Link](b.x);
// outputs 0, because b is a // outputs 0, because b points to a
// different object than a // different object than a
Foo c;
// declares c to be a reference to a Foo
Foo *c;
// object (initially null if c is a class
// declares c to be a pointer to a
member;
// Foo object (initially
// you are required to initialize c
// undefined; could point anywhere)
before use
// if it is a local variable)
c = new Foo();
c = new Foo();
// binds c to reference a new Foo
// binds c to reference a new Foo object
object
Foo *d = c; Foo d = c;
// binds d to reference the same // binds d to reference the same object
object as c as c
c->x = 5;
c.x = 5;
// modifies the object referenced by
// modifies the object referenced by c
c
[Link](5); // invokes Foo::bar() for [Link](5); // invokes [Link]() for a
a
c->bar(5); // invokes Foo::bar() for [Link](5); // invokes [Link]() for c
*c
cout << d->x << endl; [Link](d.x);
// outputs 5, because d references // outputs 5, because
the // d references
// same object as c // the same object as c

 In C++, it is possible to declare a pointer to a const type, that is, you cannot modify the object
pointed to by the pointer using that pointer. Functions and methods can also guarantee that
they will not modify the object pointed to by a pointer by using the "const" keyword. This
enforces const-correctness. This is not possible in Java. You can declare a reference "final" in
Java (like declaring a pointer "const" in C++), but this just prevents you from re-binding that
reference; you can still modify the object referenced by the reference.

C++ Java

const Foo *a; // you cannot modify the

final Foo a; // you can modify the
object
object
// pointed to by a
// by a anytime you want
through a
a = new Foo(); a = new Foo(); // Only in constructor
a.x = 5;
a->x = 5;
// LEGAL, you can still modify the
// ILLEGAL
object
Foo *const b = new Foo(); final Foo b = new Foo();
// you can declare a "const" pointer // you can declare a "final" reference
b = new Foo(); b = new Foo();
//ILLEGAL, you can't re-bind it // ILLEGAL, you can't re-bind it
b->x = 5; b.x = 5;
// LEGAL, you can still modify the // LEGAL, you can still modify the
object object

 C++ supports goto statements; Java enforces structured control flow, and relies on labelled
break and labelled continue statements to provide some goto-like functionality. Some
commenters point out that these labelled flow control statements break the single point-of-exit
property of structured programming.[3]
 C++ provides low-level features which Java lacks. In C++, pointers can be used to manipulate
specific memory locations, a task necessary for writing low-level operating system components.
Similarly, many C++ compilers support inline assembler. In Java, such code has to reside in
external libraries, and can only be accessed through the Java Native Interface with a significant
overhead for each call.

[edit] Semantics

 C++ allows default values for arguments of a function/method, Java does not. However, method
overloading can be used to obtain similar results in Java.
 The minimal compilation unit in C++ is a function; the compilation unit in Java is a class. In C++,
functions can be compiled separately. In Java, to compile and maintain methods separately
requires moving them into super and extended classes or using some other code refactoring
technique.
 C++ allows a range of implicit conversions between native types, and also allows the
programmer to define implicit conversions involving user-defined types. In Java, only widening
conversions between native types are implicit; other conversions require explicit cast syntax.
o A consequence of this is that although loop conditions (if, while and the exit condition
in for) in Java and C++ both expect a boolean expression, code such as if(a = 5) will
cause a compile error in Java because there is no implicit narrowing conversion from int
to boolean. This is handy if the code was a typo for if(a == 5). Yet current C++
compilers usually generate a warning when such an assignment is performed within a
conditional expression.
 For passing parameters to functions, C++ supports both pass-by-reference and pass-by-value. In
Java, parameters are always passed by value.[4] However, in Java all non-primitive values are
references to objects (in C++ terms, they are (smart)-pointers). Objects are not values in Java
and only their references can be manipulated; C++ developers who are used to having objects as
values may confuse this with pass-by-reference.
  Java built-in types are of a specified size and range defined by the virtual machine; In C++, a
minimal range of values is defined for built-in types, but the exact representation (number of
bits) can be mapped to whatever native types are supported on a given platform.
o For instance, Java characters are 16-bit Unicode characters, and strings are composed of
a sequence of such characters. C++ offers both narrow and wide characters, but the
actual size of each is platform dependent, as is the character set used. Strings can be
formed from either type.
 The rounding and precision of floating point values and operations in C++ is platform dependent.
Java provides an optional strict floating-point model that guarantees consistent results across
platforms, though possibly at the cost of slower run-time performance.
 In C++, pointers can be manipulated directly as memory address values. Java does not have
pointers — it only has object references and array references, neither of which allow direct
access to memory addresses. In C++ one can construct pointers to pointers, while Java
references only access objects.
 In C++, pointers can point to functions or methods (function pointers or functors). The
equivalent mechanism in Java uses object or interface references.
 Through the use of stack-allocated objects, C++ supports scoped resource management, a
technique used to automatically manage memory and other system resources that supports
deterministic object destruction. Yet, scoped resource management in C++ cannot be
guaranteed; it is only a design pattern, and hence relies on programmers' adherence. Java
supports automatic memory management using garbage collection, but other system resources
(windows, communication ports, threads) often have to be explicitly released if the garbage
collector can not determine they are no longer used.
 C++ features programmer-defined operator overloading which is not supported in Java. The only
overloaded operators in Java are the "+" and "+=" operators, which concatenate strings as well
as performing addition.
 Java features standard API support for reflection and dynamic loading of arbitrary new code.
 C++ supports static and dynamic linking of binary to manage the space required for binary and
performance.
 Java has generics, whose main purpose is to provide type-safe containers. C++ has templates,
which provide more extensive support for generic programming.
 Both Java and C++ distinguish between native types (these are also known as "fundamental" or
"built-in" types) and user-defined types (these are also known as "compound" types). In Java,
native types have value semantics only, and compound types have reference semantics only. In
C++ all types have value semantics, but a reference can be created to any type, which will allow
the object to be manipulated via reference semantics.
 C++ supports multiple inheritance of arbitrary classes. In Java a class can derive from only one
class, but a class can implement multiple interfaces (in other words, it supports multiple
inheritance of types, but only single inheritance of implementation).
 Java explicitly distinguishes between interfaces and classes. In C++ multiple inheritance and pure
virtual functions make it possible to define classes that function almost like Java interfaces do,
with a few small differences.
 Java has both language and standard library support for multi-threading. The synchronized
keyword in Java provides simple and secure mutex locks to support multi-threaded applications,
though synchronized sections have to be left in LIFO order. Java also provides robust and
complex libraries for more advanced multi-threading synchronization. In C++ there is currently
no defined memory model for multi-threading; however, third party libraries provide support
roughly equivalent to that of Java; obvious difference being the non-uniformity of these C++
libraries.
 C++ methods can be declared as virtual functions, which means the method to be called is
determined by the run-time type of the object. By default, methods in C++ are not virtual. In
Java, methods are virtual by default, but can be made non-virtual by using the final keyword.
 C++ enumerations are primitive types and support conversion to and comparison with other
integer types. Java enumerations are actually instances of a class (they extend
[Link]<E>) and may therefore define constructors, fields, and methods as any other
class.

[edit] Resource management

 Java offers automatic garbage collection. Memory management in C++ is usually done through
constructors, destructors, and smart pointers. The C++ standard permits garbage collection, but
does not require it; garbage collection is rarely used in practice. The enforced use of automatic
garbage collection means that writing real-time software can be difficult in Java.[3]
  C++ can allocate arbitrary blocks of memory. Java only allocates memory through object
instantiation. (Note that in Java, the programmer can simulate allocation of arbitrary memory
blocks by creating an array of bytes. Still, Java arrays are objects.)
 Java and C++ use different idioms for resource management. Java relies mainly on garbage
collection, which can only reclaim memory and may be a last shot at other resources, while C++
relies mainly on the RAII (Resource Acquisition Is Initialization) idiom. This is reflected in several
differences between the two languages:
o In C++ it is common to allocate objects of compound types as local stack-bound
variables which are destroyed when they go out of scope. In Java compound types are
always allocated on the heap and collected by the garbage collector (except in virtual
machines that use escape analysis to convert heap allocations to stack allocations).
o C++ has destructors, while Java has finalizers. Both are invoked prior to an object's
deallocation, but they differ significantly. A C++ object's destructor must be implicitly (in
the case of stack-bound variables) or explicitly invoked to deallocate the object. The
destructor executes synchronously just prior to the point in the program at which the
object is deallocated. Synchronous, coordinated uninitialization and deallocation in C++
thus satisfy the RAII idiom. In Java, object deallocation is implicitly handled by the
garbage collector. A Java object's finalizer is invoked asynchronously some time after it
has been accessed for the last time and before it is actually deallocated, which may
never happen. Very few objects require finalizers; a finalizer is only required by objects
that must guarantee some clean up of the object state prior to deallocation — typically
releasing resources external to the JVM. In Java safe synchronous deallocation of
resources has to be performed explicitly using the try/finally construct.
o In C++ it is possible to have a dangling pointer – a stale reference to an object that has
already been deallocated; attempting to use a dangling pointer typically results in
program failure. In Java, the garbage collector won't destroy a referenced object.
o In C++ it is possible to have uninitialized primitive objects, Java enforces default
initialization.
o In C++ it is possible to have an object that is allocated, but has no reachable reference to
it. Such an unreachable object cannot be destroyed (deallocated), and results in a
memory leak. In contrast, in Java an object will not be deallocated by the garbage
collector until it becomes unreachable (by the user program). (Note: weak references
are supported, which work with the Java garbage collector to allow for different
strengths of reachability.) Garbage collection in Java prevents many memory leaks, but
leaks are still possible under some circumstances.[5]
o Java is more prone to leaking non-memory resources, while idiomatic C++ makes that
much harder.

[edit] Libraries

 C++ provides cross-platform access to many features typically available in platform-specific

libraries. Direct access from Java to native operating system and hardware functions requires
the use of the Java Native Interface.

[edit] Runtime

 C++ is normally compiled directly to machine code which is then executed directly by the
operating system. Java is normally compiled to byte-code which the Java virtual machine (JVM)
then either interprets or JIT compiles to machine code and then executes.
 Due to its unconstrained expressiveness, low level C++ language features (e.g. unchecked array
access, raw pointers, type punning) cannot be reliably checked at compile-time or without
overhead at run-time. Related programming errors can lead to low-level buffer overflows and
segmentation faults. The Standard Template Library provides higher-level abstractions (like
vector, list and map) to help avoid such errors. In Java, low level errors either cannot occur or
are detected by the JVM and reported to the application in the form of an exception.
 The Java language requires specific behavior in the case of an out-of-bounds array access, which
generally requires bounds checking of array accesses. This eliminates a possible source of
instability but usually at the cost of slowing down execution. In some cases, compiler analysis
can prove a bounds check unnecessary and eliminate it. C++ has no required behavior for out-
of-bounds access of native arrays, thus requiring no bounds checking for native arrays. C++
standard library collections like std::vector, however, offer optional bounds checking. In
summary, Java arrays are "always safe; severely constrained; always have overhead" while C++
native arrays "have optional overhead; are completely unconstrained; are potentially unsafe."
[edit] Templates vs. Generics

Both C++ and Java provide facilities for generic programming, templates and generics,
respectively. Although they were created to solve similar kinds of problems, and have similar
syntax, they are actually quite different.

C++ Templates Java Generics

Classes and functions can be templated. Classes and methods can be genericized.

Parameters can only be reference types (not

Parameters can be any type or integral value.
primitive types).

Separate copies of the class or function are likely to

One version of the class or function is
be generated for each type parameter when
compiled, works for all type parameters.
compiled.

Type parameters are erased when compiled;

Objects of a class with different type parameters
objects of a class with different type
are different types at run time.
parameters are the same type at run time.

Implementation source code of the templated class

Signature of the class or function from a
or function must be included in order to use it
compiled class file is sufficient to use it.
(declaration insufficient).

Templates can be specialized -- a separate

implementation could be provided for a particular Generics cannot be specialized.
template parameter.

Template parameters can have default arguments Generic type parameters cannot have default
(only for template classes, not functions). arguments.

Does not support wildcards. Instead, return types Supports wildcard as type parameter if it is
are often available as nested typedefs. only used once.

Supports bounding of type parameters with

Does not directly support bounding of type "extends" and "super" for upper and lower
parameters, but metaprogramming provides this[6] bounds, respectively; allows enforcement of
relationships between type parameters.

Allows instantiation of class of type parameter Does not allow instantiation of class of type
type. parameter type (except through reflection).

Type parameter of templated class can be used for Type parameter of templated class cannot be
static methods and variables. used for static methods and variables.

Static variables are shared between

Static variables are not shared between classes of
instances of a classes of different type
different type parameters.
parameters.

Templated classes and functions do not enforce Generic classes and functions can enforce
type relations for type parameters in their type relationships for type parameters in
declaration. Use of a wrong type parameter results their declaration. Use of a wrong type
in the template code "not working", usually parameter results in a type error at the code
generating an error message at a place in the that uses it. Operations on parametrized
template code where an operation is not allowed types in generic code are only allowed in
for that type and not in the user's code. Proper use ways that can be guaranteed to be safe by
of templated classes and functions is dependent on the declaration. This results in greater type
proper documentation. Metaprogramming safety at the cost of flexibility.
 provides these features at the cost of additional
effort.

Templates are Turing-complete (see template

Generics are not Turing-complete.
metaprogramming).

Differences Between Java and C/C++

Expand Post »

Differences Between Java and C/C++

 The Preprocessor
 Pointers
 Structures and Unions
 Functions
 Multiple Inheritance
 Strings
 The goto Statement
 Operator Overloading
 Automatic Coercions
 Variable Arguments
 Command-Line Arguments

It is no secret that the Java language is highly derived from the C and C++ languages. Because C++ is
currently considered the language of choice for professional software developers, it's important to
understand what aspects of C++ Java inherits. Of possibly even more importance are what aspects of C+
+ Java doesn't support. Because Java is an entirely new language, it was possible for the language
architects to pick and choose which features from C++ to implement in Java and how.

The focus of this appendix is to point out the differences between Java and C++. If you are a C++
programmer, you will be able to appreciate the differences between Java and C++. Even if you don't
have any C++ experience, you can gain some insight into the Java language by understanding what C++
discrepancies it clears up in its implementation. Because C++ backwardly supports C, many of the
differences pointed out in this appendix refer to C++, but inherently apply to C as well.

The Preprocessor

All C/C++ compilers implement a stage of compilation known as the preprocessor. The C++ preprocessor
basically performs an intelligent search and replace on identifiers that have been declared using the
#define or #typedef directives. Although most advocates of C++ discourage the use of the preprocessor,
which was inherited from C, it is still widely used by most C++ programmers. Most of the processor
definitions in C++ are stored in header files, which complement the actual source code files.

The problem with the preprocessor approach is that it provides an easy way for programmers to
inadvertently add unnecessary complexity to a program. What happens is that many programmers using
the #define and #typedef directives end up inventing their own sublanguage within the confines of a
particular project. This results in other programmers having to go through the header files and sort out
all the #define and #typedef information to understand a program, which makes code maintenance and
reuse almost impossible. An additional problem with the preprocessor approach is that it is weak when
it comes to type checking and validation.

Java does not have a preprocessor. It provides similar functionality (#define, #typedef, and so on) to that
provided by the C++ preprocessor, but with far more control. Constant data members are used in place
of the #define directive, and class definitions are used in lieu of the #typedef directive. The result is that
Java source code is much more consistent and easier to read than C++ source code. Additionally, Java
programs don't use header files; the Java compiler builds class definitions directly from the source code
files, which contain both class definitions and method implementations.

Pointers

Most developers agree that the misuse of pointers causes the majority of bugs in C/C++ programming.
Put simply, when you have pointers, you have the ability to trash memory. C++ programmers regularly
use complex pointer arithmetic to create and maintain dynamic data structures. In return, C++
programmers spend a lot of time hunting down complex bugs caused by their complex pointer
arithmetic.

The Java language does not support pointers. Java provides similar functionality by making heavy use of
references. Java passes all arrays and objects by reference. This approach prevents common errors due
to pointer mismanagement. It also makes programming easier in a lot of ways simply because the
correct usage of pointers is easily misunderstood by all but the most seasoned programmers.

You may be thinking that the lack of pointers in Java will keep you from being able to implement many
data structures, such as dynamic arrays. The reality is that any pointer task can be carried out just as
easily and more reliably with objects and arrays of objects. You then benefit from the security provided
by the Java runtime system; it performs boundary checking on all array indexing operations.

Structures and Unions

There are three types of complex data types in C++: classes, structures, and unions. Java only
implements one of these data types: classes. Java forces programmers to use classes when the
functionality of structures and unions is desired. Although this sounds like more work for the
programmer, it actually ends up being more consistent, because classes can imitate structures and
unions with ease. The Java designers really wanted to keep the language simple, so it only made sense
to eliminate aspects of the language that overlapped.

Functions

In C, code is organized into functions, which are global subroutines accessible to a program. C++ added
classes and in doing so provided class methods, which are functions that are connected to classes. C++
class methods are very similar to Java class methods. However, because C++ still supports C, there is
nothing discouraging C++ programmers from using functions. This results in a mixture of function and
method use that makes for confusing programs.

Java has no functions. Being a purer object-oriented language than C++, Java forces programmers to
bundle all routines into class methods. There is no limitation imposed by forcing programmers to use
methods instead of functions. As a matter of fact, implementing routines as methods encourages
programmers to organize code better. Keep in mind that strictly speaking there is nothing wrong with
the procedural approach of using functions; it just doesn't mix well with the object-oriented paradigm
that defines the core of Java.

Multiple Inheritance

Multiple inheritance is a feature of C++ that allows you to derive a class from multiple parent classes.
Although multiple inheritance is indeed powerful, it is complicated to use correctly and causes many
problems otherwise. It is also very complicated to implement from the compiler perspective.

Java takes the high road and provides no direct support for multiple inheritance. You can implement
functionality similar to multiple inheritance by using interfaces in Java. Java interfaces provide object
method descriptions but contain no implementations.

Strings
C and C++ have no built-in support for text strings. The standard technique adopted among C and C++
programmers is that of using null-terminated arrays of characters to represent strings.

In Java, strings are implemented as first class objects (String and StringBuffer), meaning that they are at
the core of the Java language. Java's implementation of strings as objects provides several advantages:

 The manner in which you create strings and access the elements of strings is consistent across
all strings on all systems
 Because the Java string classes are defined as part of the Java language and not part of some
extraneous extension, Java strings function predictably every time
 The Java string classes perform extensive runtime checking, which helps eliminate troublesome
runtime errors

The goto Statement

The dreaded goto statement is pretty much a relic these days even in C and C++, but it is technically a
legal part of the languages. The goto statement has historically been cited as the cause for messy,
impossible to understand, and sometimes even impossible to predict code known as "spaghetti code."
The primary usage of the goto statement has merely been as a convenience to substitute not thinking
through an alternative, more structured branching technique.

For all these reasons and more, Java does not provide a goto statement. The Java language specifies
goto as a keyword, but its usage is not supported. I suppose the Java designers wanted to eliminate the
possibility of even using goto as an identifier! Not including goto in the Java language simplifies the
language and helps eliminate the option of writing messy code.

Operator Overloading

Operator overloading, which is considered a prominent feature in C++, is not supported in Java.
Although roughly the same functionality can be implemented by classes in Java, the convenience of
operator overloading is still missing. However, in defense of Java, operator overloading can sometimes
get very tricky. No doubt the Java developers decided not to support operator overloading to keep the
Java language as simple as possible.

Automatic Coercions

Automatic coercion refers to the implicit casting of data types that sometimes occurs in C and C++. For
example, in C++ you can assign a float value to an int variable, which can result in a loss of information.
Java does not support C++ style automatic coercions. In Java, if a coercion will result in a loss of data,
you must always explicitly cast the data element to the new type.

Variable Arguments

C and C++ let you declare functions, such as printf, that take a variable number of arguments. Although
this is a convenient feature, it is impossible for the compiler to thoroughly type check the arguments,
which means problems can arise at runtime without you knowing. Again Java takes the high road and
doesn't support variable arguments at all.

Command-Line Arguments

The command-line arguments passed from the system into a Java program differ in a couple of ways
from the command-line arguments passed into a C++ program. First, the number of parameters passed
differs between the two languages. In C and C++, the system passes two arguments to a program: argc
and argv. argc specifies the number of arguments stored in argv. argv is a pointer to an array of
characters containing the actual arguments. In Java, the system passes a single value to a program: args.
args is an array of Strings that contains the command-line arguments. In C and C++, the command-line
arguments passed into a program include the name used to invoke the program. This name always
appears as the first argument and is rarely ever used. In Java, you already know the name of the
program because it is the same name as the class, so there is no need to pass this information as a
command-line argument. Therefore, the Java runtime system only passes the arguments following the
name that invoked the program.