Today, the world is changing fast in many ways, and the most rapid change that is seen within our society is technology. It is imperative that businesses stay on top of what is new and how they can better their companys outlook by presenting their information in the fastest and most reliable ways. With the two major computer programming languages of today, C++ and Java, which is better for businesses to be able to acquire such speed and consistency?
For years, C++ (C Plus Plus) has dominated the business market place for many different companies and has allowed many computer programmers to obtain vast amounts of knowledge and experience since 1972 when it was first developed by Dennis Ritchie of AT&T Bell Laboratories (Lambert / Nance Page 16). It has been in use for almost thirty years not to mention the years before when its precursor C was developed and commonly used also and has made a great impact on the development of software for business across the world.
It has become a second nature programming language to those that use it and have been forced to stay with C++. The programming language C++ can be used in many ways. It has exploded into the gaming community allowing PC game programmers to have access to a stabile, yet powerful, programming language, utilizing as little code as possible. It has also been used in other commercial software, such as word processors, audio players, screen savers, and other computer desktop tools. Recently C++ has made its way into the Internet community.
For over ten years, business have used C++ for their Internet needs, for example, sending and receiving important data pertaining to their business across the Internet and allowing it to quickly and safely reach the other end of communication and all in one piece. With the high demands of todays Internet users, whether it be an online shopper or one that desires to seek information on a certain topic, it is essential that the information can be sent from the user, to the server, and then back again as swiftly as possible and with utmost dependability all, of course, without the loss of security.
It has been this reason that C++ has stayed on top of the business world, allowing for speed, stability, security, and ease of use all for one computer programming language. It is a fairly simple language to learn and allows for many people learn the language quickly and then share their ideas with others, and learn even more. Microsoft has made C++ an even more popular language via its usage on their Internet web site and its well-known software, the Microsoft Office Suites. In the past year, Microsoft has developed a new development software called .
NET Development and considerably new computer programming language called C# (C Sharp). This is yet another rendition of the C++ computer programming language but is entirely created for the use on the Internet, a great advantage for business that do not wish to convert their computer programmers to the Java computer programming language, or to provide work for new employees that already know Java allowing for the Java programmers a chance to ask for more money at the companys expense.
This new Internet-ready computer programming development system is capable of utilizing an enormous quantity of computer programming languages used by many Internet computer programmers, including C++ (Dragan Page 3). The only drawback is that the version of Java that can be programmed into the . NET infrastructure is a much older version than what is used today and will never have the chance to be upgraded for the recent lawsuit of Microsoft by Sun Microsystems in 1997, rendering newer versions of Java since v1. 0 (version 1. , useless to Microsoft and its supporters (Berger Page 1).
With such a dominating company backing the future of C++ and developing new methods of Internet programming languages, why would any business use any other computer programming language than the one used by the world renowned Microsoft Corporation? Like any software purchased by someone for their computer it is bound to have bugs within waiting to ruin a computer or crash at a most pertinent moment. The C++ computer programming language has been known to give its developers way too much power for their own good.
Meaning that programmers using the C++ computer programming language are able to tweak memory settings or system memory usage, leaving way for the destruction of a computer systems memory and usage ability, resulting in slow performance, instability of the computer system, or a system crash. Most of all, the C++ computer programming language is limited to one type of running system at a time. For example, a program written in C++ is solely written for a computer running Microsoft Windows, or solely for a computer running on a Macintosh operation system.
The computer programming language can never be written so that both types of systems can utilize the same C++ code, allowing for a difficult process of porting the process of changing the code of a program on Microsoft Windows, for example, and then to a Macintosh. This is always a tough feat to accomplish and takes a long time to complete. So then, what is the alternative to this too-powerful, hard-to-port computer programming language? As of 1997, Sun Microsystems has introduced a new Internet-based computer programming language that has more compatibility on all systems that its competitor, C++.
The Java computer programming language is similar to C++ in its coding. To learn C++ is to learn ninety-percent of Java, and vice versa (Liberty Page 11). Yet, Java is a lot different because it runs on a virtual machine, which can be installed on any type of computer system allowing for the same code for any program to run on any system. This is a lifesaver for many business and computer programmers. But of course it all comes with a price a pretty hefty price to some businesses.
Java is known to be slow at sending and receiving data which puts a bad outlook upon this infant of a programming language. And the major goal for one on the internet, other than actually receiving the data, is getting it in a relatively quick amount of time. Also, Java has been developed by Sun Microsystems to make learning the ins and outs of the computer programming language much easier than C++. They have made the program less innovative and much simpler for anyone to come along and learn the language with little to no skills at all (Carucci Page 3).
This poses a risk for allowing mediocre computer programmers to enter a business and waste the time and money of a business and its productivity. It is hard not to point out all of the bad features of the Java programming language for it is very young in the field and has not had the time and attention that C++ has had to be tweaked and enhanced by millions of users. But it is so well developed in its own way that Microsoft has made it a point to copy the functional aspects of Java such as using a virtual machine that prove most useful in the Internet world and have applied these characteristics in their .
NET development software. The whole idea of the . NET development system is so similar to Java that is almost comical. Many argue why Sun Microsystems has not moved Java to ANSI (American National Standards Institute) the institute that describes that standards for many computer programming languages and that they should be able to be compiled and interpreted on other machines (Liberty Page 11-12) and have come to the conclusion that they are trying to create a whole new system to run Java on.
Like Microsoft, who has tried to monopolize many of desktop productivity tools as well as internet browsers, and more, Sun Microsystems is trying to make the Java virtual machine a completely separate system to run all Java applications on, and morph into something like that of an operating system (Carucci Page 5). Sun Microsystems is only trying to be a competitor in the area that the Microsoft Corporation has dominated for so long. When you look at the new development Microsoft is working on, they are trying to accomplish a similar feat.
They [Microsoft] are trying to make all computer programmers to take their skills and flock to the . NET system because they know C++ so well and it is much more powerful than Java, itself. At the same time, Microsoft is allowing for a monopolization of its line of operating systems, Windows, because it is the only operating system supported under the . NET framework. It is now easy to say that C++ should surely be the choice of computer programming languages to build Internet ready applications because of its popularity and enormous community of programmers.
It is best for businesses for the power it offers users, its stability and security that is guaranteed to both ends of the server, and its ability to quickly transmit data back and forth between users and store the information into databases. Tests were performed to prove that C++ could have definitely beaten any Java program when being tested on speed. In one instance, a program was made for each language to add up matrices ranging in size from one by one to 100 by 100. Each program ran five times and amounted to 500 data values.
The results showed that in real time, the C++ program was executed and complete in a mere 0. 24 seconds while the Java program took almost 2 seconds. The C++ program ran at 7. 2 times faster than the Java program (Galyon Page 6). More tests were completed and information was compiled; results showed that all of the C++ programs ran around seven times faster than the Java programs, constantly (Galyon Page 3-9). It is even apparent in todays world that many businesses and companies are making the move, if they are not already there, to C++, and soon the .
NET development system. Major companies like Microsoft Corporation, Lionhead Studios, id Software, and AT&T all utilize the C++ computer programming language, all for different areas of computing, also. Although it would be nice to be able to make use of a computer programming language such as Java so that programs can be written once, and ran everywhere (MacVittie Page 1), not everything can be perfect but the perfect choice for business computer programmers would have to be C++.