Quote:Original post by Cinder
What's the differences between C++ and Java?
What is mostly used today?
What's fastest?
When was Java created?
Which language is most functional?
What do I learn most from?
What language are used for console games?
other things..?
There're my answers:
1)C++ has a lot of legacy code. Since it could be considered and extension of C (well, not exactly, but come on...) you have in addition a lot of C programs (think to pretty all *nix apps). Today C# targets pretty the same usage of Java, so perhaps Java is loosing (in percentage) a bit (not sure, anyway).
2)C++ programs are faster, at least in my experience (try using NetBeans or OpenOffice and compare them to, i.e. Visual Studio and MS Office). But in many cases it does not count so much, since you have powerful systems and many programs wouldn't suffer too much even if they run at half speed of a c++ counterpart. (except NetBeans :-(
But I wouln't suggest 3d games or ray-tracers in Java, if the speed is important.
On the other hand, the development speed is usually higher with Java than with C++, due to a very large api that covers all aspects of sw development and sue to a smaller probability of making some errors that in c++ could lead to hours of debug.
3)1994? It was designed to be used with embedded systems, but then...
4)They can do pretty the same things. But, for example, don't expect to go to the hw in a java program (i.e. I don't think that a driver can be made in java).
5)I would say C++, for the following reasons: java forces you to use OO design, if not in your very code (but still, you need a Object Based approach) at least every time you access its api. C++ is a multi-paradigm language: you can use it in a imperative way (like C, Pascal,...) or in a OO way, because it supports OO, but does not require it. In addition, many of the errors you get when you program in C++ may teach you a lot of things , in the learning phase. Moreover, c++ lets you work with the very byte (even bit) without using tricks (i.e. bitfields vs. bitwise operators) and you can get an idea about how does the pc works when you use c++ (stack, buffer overflow, C-like strings, many parameter passing methods [by value, pointer and reference],...).
That's said, I learned a lot about SW design since I began to use Java, and now this helps me even with c++.
6)Don't know, but I'm pretty sure C++.
I would suggest to give a look to both of them, then start a bit with C++, and then choose what you think is best for your needs. I think that knowing a imperative language helps a lot in learning Java, because I suspect that with Java a newbie can easily confuse what is a 'programming language' and what is a 'programming paradigm', or he may think that the provided api IS the language, just because you do nothing without it, while in C++ FIRST start to use the language, THEN begin to use the api. But perhaps that's just me.
