What are those features which java has and others dont?

Question

I want to know some features which are very useful and specific to java. As i am java developer, when people asks me about some good programming features which are available in java not in any other languages, then which you think i can tell them.

That is, if i tell these features to them, then they should find out that i am a java developer.

@preet, no hidden features, its "The" features which distinguishes java from other languages — GuruKulki, Mar 01 '10 at 10:23
The only language which shares his name with coffee, and coffee and programming go hand in hand :) — Jens, Mar 01 '10 at 13:41
Downvote because it's subjective, and it's just gonna end in a language troll. — Valentin Rocher, Mar 01 '10 at 13:55

score 9 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 01 '10 at 10:15

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the strength of java is the jvm and the tons of opensource libraries available.

the programming language was certainly good some years ago, but now there are better languages, and some of them run on the jvm too (scala, groovy).

answered Mar 01 '10 at 10:15

naaka

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I'm sorry, but from my experience with Groovy I wouldn't say it was a 'better' language. Shorter isn't necessarily better, and 'def' is the root of all evil. – James Camfield Mar 01 '10 at 16:49
ok your point is right. probably "better" is not the best word to use. i just meant that there are languages that came later than java and are generally more powerful and coincise. obviously the more power you give to a user, the more chance there is that he makes wrong decisions. but i have seen very messy and unreadable code in java too. and it was surely longer :) by the way i really prefer the type inference approach of scala! – naaka Mar 02 '10 at 15:25

score 8 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 01 '10 at 10:24

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Mandatory exception specifications. Oh, wait, you wanted useful...!

Sorry for the dig, but Java, like all other languages, carries its burden of idiosyncracies and experimentation. Some of it worked out (Java really helped push interfaces to the forefront of statically type checked OO languages, as well as built in documentation generation, even if it was not the first attempt at either), while some of it didn't (see above).

I doubt you're going to find unique and useful Java features which cannot be found, copied or emulated in other languages. What's uniquely good (and bad) about Java is the combination of particular features, existing tools and libraries, and wide-spread development skills out there.

answered Mar 01 '10 at 10:24

Pontus Gagge

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It's kinda obvious: if a language feature is useful, it's not going to stay unique for very long. – Michael Borgwardt Mar 01 '10 at 10:35
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Mandatory exception specifications existed in Modula-3 long before Java was even a gleam in Sun's mailman's eyes. – JUST MY correct OPINION Mar 01 '10 at 12:52
@ttmrichter: There's nothing new under the Sun... Out of curiosity: have you used Modula-3 yourself? Outside academia? For any kind of large-scale programming? I was under the impression that it never got a twentieth of the following Pascal (in various bastardized dialects) achieved. – Pontus Gagge Mar 02 '10 at 14:27

score 5 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 01 '10 at 13:38

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Java's Object Oriented Enums.

(Of course you can emulate them in other languages; but in my knowledge Java happens to be the only language which has language level support for them.)

answered Mar 01 '10 at 13:38

missingfaktor

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C# has object-oriented enums with language support as well. – Daniel Pryden Mar 01 '10 at 16:53
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@kts, @Daniel: C++0x and C# only have scoped enums. Please see the link I have posted to understand what I mean by OO enums. – missingfaktor Mar 01 '10 at 18:00
@kts: This might give you some idea about what I am talking => http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1965249/how-to-write-java-like-enums-in-c – missingfaktor Mar 01 '10 at 18:03

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 01 '10 at 10:29

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I guess you cannot name a feature of Java that no other language has except for one: The amount of open-source/free frameworks and libraries that are out there.

For every problem you encounter there's a library. You want a http client? Take the Apache one. A powerful Dependeny Injection framework? Spring or Struts or whatever else. Need a free server to deploy the whole thing? Tomcat. O/R-Mapping? Hibernate with Annotations. Or iBatis. Combine the whole thing with maven2 and your project is ready to go, managing all these dependencies.

answered Mar 01 '10 at 10:29

f1sh

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I'm quite sure there are more OS frameworks for C than for Java. Simply because C has been around for much longer. – Niki Mar 01 '10 at 10:30
@nikie: I really don't think so. There are many great C libraries out there but they don't really compare to Java Frameworks (libraries and frameworks are somewhat different things anyway.) – pmr Mar 01 '10 at 10:35
Actually, I've had a problem finding a Java API that will solve stiff ordinary differential equations. In the end, I went with Python for that reason (and boy am I glad I did!). – Chinmay Kanchi Mar 01 '10 at 16:44

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 01 '10 at 10:14

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One i think is that, java is the only language which is considered to be a Platform and a Framework.

answered Mar 01 '10 at 10:14

GuruKulki

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Depends on what you mean by platform, but... not hardly. C#/CLR, Ruby-on-rails, Python with its libraries. Any self-respecting language these days comes with a substantial set of libraries. – Pontus Gagge Mar 01 '10 at 10:19
according to the answer i got here, platform is the one where we run, and framework is the one where we develop. so java can do both – GuruKulki Mar 01 '10 at 10:25

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 01 '10 at 10:17

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Jave is the only language that has a java compiler and a java syntax.

answered Mar 01 '10 at 10:17

Preet Sangha

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I don't understand. Could you elaborate? – fastcodejava Mar 01 '10 at 11:08

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Mar 01 '10 at 16:42

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Though it's technically a property of the implementation, the outstanding quality of the garbage collector and the fact that memory management usually "just works" even when you care about performance never ceases to impress me.

answered Mar 01 '10 at 16:42

dsimcha

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score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Mar 01 '10 at 10:16

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The different layout-options/layout managers(clickable) for your forms maybe?

Altho, WPF is gaining ground 'cause of being vectorbased.

answered Mar 01 '10 at 10:16

Jens

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score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Mar 01 '10 at 10:37

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I think I agree more or less on everything, but the best feature you can tell them Java has is that you know how to develop with it.

answered Mar 01 '10 at 10:37

Javi Roman

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score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Mar 01 '10 at 13:43

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Java's Excellent Concurrency Library.

This is more of a library feature than a language feature but it still gives Java some edge over .NET when it comes to concurrency. (Please note that you can use these libraries from other JVM languages as well.)

answered Mar 01 '10 at 13:43

missingfaktor

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score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Mar 01 '10 at 13:49

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Anonymous inner classes (instead of closures)

answered Mar 01 '10 at 13:49

Roman

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score -1 · Answer 12 · answered Mar 01 '10 at 12:38

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The language is type safe
Great tool support(IDEs, Containers, Build tools(Ant, Maven), Maven from multiple vendors
(Mostly) platform independent
No memory leaks :P
Java Community Process (JCP) and Java Specification Requests (JSR)

answered Mar 01 '10 at 12:38

Gilgamesh

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Type safety is not unique to Java. Tool support is not unique to Java. Platform independence is not unique to Java. Java does leak memory AND garbage collection is not unique to Java. Bureaucracy is not unique to Java. The original poster wanted things specific to Java and you gave a list of features that are as common as dirt. – JUST MY correct OPINION Mar 01 '10 at 12:55

What are those features which java has and others dont?

12 Answers12