[Edu-sig] C vs Java

[Michael McLay]

On Tuesday 13 April 2004 9:36 am, Liow, Dr. Yihsiang wrote:
> Learn C. The person(s) who told you C is dead is simply out of touch
> with reality. C is *not* dead and probably will never die. Go to
> sourceforge.net and take a look at the projects in C/C++. Linux, Unix,
> Windows are written in C/C++.
>
> My guess is that the people you're talking to is referring about *jobs
> prospects*. There are *apparently* more jobs for Java programmers
> compared to C/C++ simply because Java is used a lot in business
> applications. (You can do a search on www.monsterboard.com for "Java"
> and "C/C++" and compare:
> C/C++: 1444
> Java: more than 5000
> But there are other factors to consider when you're looking for a
> language because of job prospects. For instance the *number* of C/C++
> programmers. It's an issue of supply and demand. Some schools are not
> teaching C/C++ anymore. Which means C/C++ programming skill will be more
> valuable. 

Python programming experience is rapidly growing in demand. This is reflected 
in higher salaries for Python programmers than Java programmers.

> Furthermore, I believe that Python is a much better language 
> than Java when it comes to business applications (and in other areas).
> So who knows what will happen to Java in the next 5-10 years?

Philip Greenspun summarized Java very well,  "I had an epiphany:  Java is the 
SUV of programming tools."
	http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/philg/2003/09/20

I think Python is approaching a tipping point. There is no sensible reason to 
work 2X longer to write an application in Java. It is simply a lack of 
knowledge. 

> You mentioned learning a low level language. Well, C would be the best.
> You might also want to look into game programming using C/C++. Game
> programming does get you into some low level stuff. Besides, it's a lot
> of fun.
>
> - Yihsiang
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: edu-sig-bounces at python.org [mailto:edu-sig-bounces at python.org] On
> Behalf Of arkamir at softhome.net
> Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2004 12:24 AM
> To: edu-sig at python.org
> Subject: [Edu-sig] C vs Java
>
>
> Hello,
>
>   Ive been sitting in the sidelines of this mailing list for some
> timenow,
> and I know this has probably been asked but I was wondering whichone
> would
> be more adventagous to learn out of C and Java. I am afreshman in
> highschool, and am profecient in Python. 

You can write Python programs in C by using the Python C API. You can study 
some of the Python modules that are written in C to see how this is done. 

C will continue to be used for machine level programming tasks. But 
programmers will become better about isolating this low level code inside of 
Python modules. 


> I know there are awhole slew of 
>
> other languages out there, but I am researching intobuilding a robot as
> a
> tool for learning a low level language, and thoseare the only languages
> supported. I've heard a lot about how C is deadand Java's open source
> compiler/libs lacking. Learning see C would begood for kernel hacking if
> i
> ever get into it, but I'm most likely goingto have to learn Java for my
> AP
> tests anyways.
>
> Thanks A Lot
>
> Conrad
>
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