How Will Java Change My Life?

We can't promise you fame, fortune, or even a job if you learn Java. Still, Java is likely to make your programs better and requires less effort than other languages. We believe that Java will help you do the following:

Get started quickly: Although Java is a powerful object-oriented language, it's easy to learn, especially for programmers already familiar with C or C++.
Write less code: Comparisons of program metrics (class counts, method counts, and so on) suggest that a program written in Java can be four times smaller than the same program in C++.
Write better code: The Java language encourages good coding practices, and its garbage collection helps you avoid memory leaks. Java's object orientation, its JavaBeans component architecture, and its wide-ranging, easily extendible API let you reuse other people's tested code and introduce fewer bugs.
Develop programs faster: Your development time may be as much as twice as fast versus writing the same program in C++. Why? You write fewer lines of code with Java and Java is a simpler programming language than C++.
Avoid platform dependencies with 100% Pure Java: You can keep your program portable by following the purity tips mentioned throughout this book and avoiding the use of libraries written in other languages.
Write once, run anywhere: Because 100% Pure Java programs are compiled into machine-independent bytecodes, they run consistently on any Java platform.
Distribute software more easily: You can upgrade applets easily from a central server. Applets take advantage of the Java feature of allowing new classes to be loaded "on the fly," without recompiling the entire program.
The programs in the following two lessons demonstrate only a few of these features. Still, you need to start somewhere, so why not with "Hello World."
What Next?

From here, you can do the following:

Go to the next lesson, The "Hello World" Application, that steps you through writing and running an application.
Go to the lesson after that, The "Hello World" Applet, if you prefer to start with applets.
Learn more about the Java language by going to the Learning the Java Language .

The Java Phenomenon