By now, you’ve seen plenty of posts from me regarding our need for hard skills in the work force and how our graduates in the United States are just… not filling that skills gap.
One of those skills was Javascript. I should have included it’s very differentiated cousin, Java. Each handle the back end and front end of software development, respectively.
When I first started with Cogent, I’ll be honest… as a baby coder… I had no idea why we focused so much on Java in our bootcamps. I had learned visual basics and C++ in school… which is also why I am not a software developer.
Upon spending more time with Cogent, it became clear. Java is the #1 programming language and development platform in the world. It is a high-level, class-based, object-oriented programming language and it is designed to have as few implementation dependencies as possible. In short… it’s the most popular language because it’s the most versatile and saves the most time.
Java was first released by Sun Microsystems in 1995. There were five primary goals in the creation of the Java language (taken from Wikipedia):
It must be simple, object-oriented, and familiar.
It must be robust and secure.
It must be architecture-neutral and portable.
It must execute with high performance.
It must be interpreted, threaded, and dynamic.
We’re now up to Java SE 18. Java has evolved from those humble beginnings to power a good portion of the digital applications and sites we use, today. In fact, there are many applications and even some websites that will not even function unless you have Java installed!
Java reduces costs and shortens development timeframes. It’s also an instrument to drive innovation. With millions of developers running more than 51 billion Java Virtual Machines worldwide and improving application services, Java continues to be the development platform of choice for enterprises and developers. It does this by providing a reliable platform upon which many services and applications are built.