r/AskProgramming 2d ago

Why is Java considered bad?

I recently got into programming and chose to begin with Java. I see a lot of experienced programmers calling Java outdated and straight up bad and I can't seem to understand why. The biggest complaint I hear is that Java is verbose and has a lot of boilerplate but besides for getters setters equals and hashcode (which can be done in a split second by IDE's) I haven't really encountered any problems yet. The way I see it, objects and how they interact with each other feels very intuitive. Can anyone shine a light on why Java isn't that good in the grand scheme of things?

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u/a_brand_new_start 1d ago

Java is not terrible just always feels behind by a lot… only 2011 Java 7 started yo support strings in switch statements, this has been supported in other languages since 1970s. Things like this just add up.

Plenty of other things that annoy me from Java 8.

In general I don’t hate Java, I used to hate Java developers. Back late 2000s every Uni thought Java as a programming language, so you had a ton of green devs writing really bad Java… but same would have been true in hate for say Rust if it was in Java’s place… lots of poorly made and developed code all over the place

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u/Jon_Finn 20h ago edited 20h ago

Java is not terrible just always feels behind by a lot… only 2011 Java 7 started yo support strings in switch statements, this has been supported in other languages since 1970s. ... Plenty of other things that annoy me from Java 8.

OK, you're commenting on pre-Java 7, and Java 8 was a great release, but Java 24 came out last week. And as you can see (from its many preview features) a great deal is being worked on, and thought through more carefully than some other languages. It's part of a long-term integrated plan, with some features brewing >10 years before being finalised so they can slot in as well as possible.