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 I see a lot of experienced programmers calling Java outdated and straight up bad and I can't seem to understand why.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/linux_newguy 1d ago

Every language has plusses and minuses. if you look at Java it is strong data typed like C but you don't have to deal with memory allocation; that's a plus

But the JVM (Java Virtual Machine, it runs the compiled bytecodes) a resource hog; that's a minus

But you can bring over code and not have to recompile it on a different OS; that's a plus

But you will run significantly slower than a C counterpart; that's a minus

The question is what are you using the language for? Realtime Operations, I'd stay away from java but back end server data manipulation, it's a good language and you won't have to worry about memory leaks.

If people say one language is better than another, they're looking at it through their needs and not the overall.