Java and Python both have been rated the most popular languages of the year 2022. Both of them are versatile and robust. They both are used for Mobile, Web, and Desktop Development. Python was developed in 1991 by Guido van Rossum, while Java was developed 4 years later in 1995 by James Gosling. Java became popular because of the platform independence it provides its developers aka users with. While Python became popular because of its simple syntax which leads to a very simple learning curve.
Java:
Java is a statically-typed language, which is compiled before it runs. But what is statically typed language? Statically typed languages mean that variables have to be defined before use. As it is compiled, that means it is faster because bytecodes are converted into native machine code. It is directly run in Java Virtual Machine. Spring, Hibernate, and Play are a few frameworks that help in the development of applications using Java. Frameworks are pre-written code, which developers can use as a template when developing programs. It also supports automatic memory management.
Python:
Python is a high-level object-oriented language with a very involved and large open-source community supporting it. It has an extensive array of libraries and tools and frameworks that can lower the development time for an application considerably. Django, FastAPI, and Flask are some of the frameworks for development with Python. It is a portable language which means a lot of OS can support it. It is simple and easy to use and deals with memory addresses and garbage collection. Python is widely used in Data Science and Analytics. It has also gained popularity with IOTs(Internet of Things).
Similarities:
Java and Python have a lot of similarities. The top one is where they treat everything as objects. Both of them also give tremendous support to cross-platform development. Also, the wide array of libraries which both have has made development easier and faster and helps in DRY(Don’t Repeat Yourself) development.
Differences:
Python is known for being developer-friendly and intuitive. Java on the other hand is known for its complex syntax where it infamously puts everything in classes. The simplicity which is the nature of Python results in its robustness. A few lines of Python surmount multiple lines of Java. For example, Java takes 9 lines to read a file and for the same task, Python would do it in 3 lines.
Python is maintainable and prone to fewer errors. Python is an interpreted language which means it has to determine the type of data it has been provided with during run time, which reduces its speed when compared to Java. They both support concurrency, but Python is impeded because of Global Interpreter Locker(GIL), as it is required to synchronize the execution of threads. This means even if you have a multi-processor, Python’s GIL will ensure that only one thread is run at a time.
Conclusion:
While both languages have their pros and cons the superiority of a language is correlational to the use case. You should list down your requirements before choosing to use either of them.
