The Artima Developer Community
Articles | News | Weblogs | Books | Forums
Artima Forums | Articles | Weblogs | Java Answers | News
Sponsored Link •

Java Answers Forum
Is JAVA a Language ?? "There are no dumb questions"

9 replies on 1 page. Most recent reply: Oct 19, 2005 6:49 PM by David Zaffery

Welcome Guest
  Sign In

Go back to the topic listing  Back to Topic List Click to reply to this topic  Reply to this Topic Click to search messages in this forum  Search Forum Click for a threaded view of the topic  Threaded View   
Previous Topic   Next Topic
Flat View: This topic has 9 replies on 1 page
Tarun Chandel

Posts: 3
Nickname: tchandel
Registered: May, 2005

Is JAVA a Language ?? "There are no dumb questions" Posted: Oct 14, 2005 12:50 AM
Reply to this message Reply
Advertisement
Hi

I was having this discussion with one of my friend and he said that JAVA is a specification. and jdk is the implementation of this specification. and together these two makes us achieve the language like experience. I agree to this point that yes with jdk we are able to do whatever wew can do with JAVA.

But my argument is if JAVA is a specification what is C or C++ are those specifications as well?? What is the difference then between JAVA and English ... is English a language or is it also a specification ??

To me JAVA is a language it helps us communicate with the computer JDK is a tool that translates what we say to what computer understands.

But am I right or JAVA is a specification ??? J2EE is called specification is in the same manner JAVA a specification ?

These are confusing thoughts in my mind ... please share your views on this ....

Tarun Chandel


Matthias Neumair

Posts: 660
Nickname: neumi
Registered: Sep, 2003

Re: Is JAVA a Language ?? "There are no dumb questions" Posted: Oct 14, 2005 1:14 AM
Reply to this message Reply
Java IS a language.

Every programming language follows specifications.

You could say that the specification define the language, how the single commands are implemented is another story.

"What the computer understands" is also a specification/language.

English follows specifications as well.

A language is a certain type of specification.

Java is of course more than a usual language.
Not only the syntax and spelling are important as in English, but the specification defines also how things must be done.

A computer is also only a specification: What come's in? What come's out?
How this is done is unimportant, the only important thing is that one knows what come's out when he inputs certain data.

Matthias Neumair

Posts: 660
Nickname: neumi
Registered: Sep, 2003

Re: Is JAVA a Language ?? "There are no dumb questions" Posted: Oct 14, 2005 1:15 AM
Reply to this message Reply
I meant of course "What comes in/out" ...

Kondwani Mkandawire

Posts: 530
Nickname: spike
Registered: Aug, 2004

Re: Is JAVA a Language ?? "There are no dumb questions" Posted: Oct 14, 2005 1:23 AM
Reply to this message Reply
If you took a CS course on Programming languages at the Varsity level,
you will notice that Java conforms to the specifications of a language.
I guess in that sense we can say it fulfils the Spec. but I wouldn't
exactly call it a Spec. Like all languages english or otherwise, it
fulfils a certain syntax which fulfil satisfy its Grammar.

Once again if you took a Course on Compilers you will be familiar
with terminology such as Context Free Grammars, BNF, etc. All these
notions go into Compiler Construction when designing a language
(e.g. Java).

I took such a course two or 3 years ago, so I may be off-base on some
of the explanations, but if you care to research it via the Internet,
you will find that you are under the correct assumption.

Tarun Chandel

Posts: 3
Nickname: tchandel
Registered: May, 2005

Re: Is JAVA a Language ?? "There are no dumb questions" Posted: Oct 15, 2005 2:10 AM
Reply to this message Reply
Hi

Thanx Matthias Neumair and Kondwani Mkandawire for your help. I really appreciate your efforts.

Tarun Chandel

Matt Gerrans

Posts: 1153
Nickname: matt
Registered: Feb, 2002

Re: Is JAVA a Language ?? "There are no dumb questions" Posted: Oct 16, 2005 1:30 PM
Reply to this message Reply
"There are no dumb questions." -- one of the dumbest bromides ever coined. ...perhaps the author of it was aware of that and intended it as a joke?

Jeff Thomson

Posts: 14
Nickname: thomson
Registered: Sep, 2005

Re: Is JAVA a Language ?? "There are no dumb questions" Posted: Oct 17, 2005 6:52 AM
Reply to this message Reply
http://saloon.javaranch.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=34&t=006632
http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=672801&tstart=30

---------------
Jeff Thomson
http://www.devsquare.com
Online Application Development

Kondwani Mkandawire

Posts: 530
Nickname: spike
Registered: Aug, 2004

Re: Is JAVA a Language ?? "There are no dumb questions" Posted: Oct 17, 2005 7:14 AM
Reply to this message Reply
Why is everyone so mad about someone posting to 100 different sites.
Personally I think its a wise thing to do, posting links to ones
own posts might also be smart. If I had the time, in order to
get a greater response rate to my question I'd sign up on 10 other
forums (javaworld, java.sun, javaranch, right here - artima) and
believe me, if I have a problem I would post to all 10
I'll be at an advantage coz probability and statistics dictate
that the odds of me getting an answer quicker are much higher.

Tarun Chandel

Posts: 3
Nickname: tchandel
Registered: May, 2005

Re: Is JAVA a Language ?? "There are no dumb questions" Posted: Oct 18, 2005 10:41 PM
Reply to this message Reply
Thanx Kondwani Mkandawire ..... finally there is someone who is thinking right and got my intentions right .... the idea of posting the same question on various forums is not to spam the forum world but to get as varied responses as possible and I have been successful in that ... on all the different forum I posted my question I have got different answers and that was the whole idea.

I agree with Kondwani Mkandawire that posting the links of your ques on other site is a good idea and I will follow this from now on, coz if someone is reading about this topic she should get all the info ready .....

Tarun Chandel

David Zaffery

Posts: 2
Nickname: zaffman
Registered: Oct, 2005

Re: Is JAVA a Language ?? "There are no dumb questions" Posted: Oct 19, 2005 6:49 PM
Reply to this message Reply
Its both. There's the language Java and there's the Java runtime, which is built to a specification of a Java virtual machine(JVM). The language Java is just another way to express the program logic. When its passed to the compiler it then converts the Java code into an intermediate byte-code that the Java runtime understands...that's where the specification part comes in. The Java virtual machine spec. defines the primitive types and how its interpreted in a consistant way so that the resulting code can run on any JVM.

If you really consider how Java is different from any other programming languages, you'll see that its not. The JVM still converts the class' byte codes into the host machines format. So now instead of a binary/exe like in a C program, you get the JVM that manages that step for you.

Flat View: This topic has 9 replies on 1 page
Topic: Help me about String Previous Topic   Next Topic Topic: where i need to modify for below program ?? (java> synchronized)
Sponsored Links


Google
  Web Artima.com   

Copyright © 1996-2019 Artima, Inc. All Rights Reserved. - Privacy Policy - Terms of Use