Java vs Objective-C

Overview

Java

Stacks148.0K

Followers105.5K

Votes3.7K

Objective-C

Stacks13.3K

Followers6.5K

Votes490

Java vs Objective-C: What are the differences?

Key Differences between Java and Objective-C

Java and Objective-C are two popular programming languages used for developing different types of applications. While they share some similarities, they also have several key differences that set them apart. Here are six important differences between Java and Objective-C:

Syntax: One of the major differences between Java and Objective-C is their syntax. Java uses a C-style syntax with a combination of curly braces and semicolons, making the code more readable and easier to understand. On the other hand, Objective-C uses a unique syntax that involves the use of square brackets to send messages to objects, which can be more confusing for beginners.
Platform: Java is a platform-independent language, meaning that it can run on any device or operating system that has a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) installed. This makes it highly versatile and widely used for developing cross-platform applications. In contrast, Objective-C is primarily used for developing applications for Apple's iOS and macOS platforms, making it less flexible in terms of platform support.
Memory Management: Another important difference between Java and Objective-C is their approach to memory management. Java uses automatic garbage collection, where the JVM automatically frees up memory by reclaiming objects that are no longer in use. Objective-C, on the other hand, uses a reference counting mechanism, where developers need to manually manage the memory by retaining and releasing objects.
Data Types: Java has a rich set of built-in data types, including primitive types such as int, float, and boolean. It also supports object-oriented programming concepts through its class and object system. Objective-C, on the other hand, has a smaller set of built-in data types and relies heavily on objects and classes for data manipulation.
Exception Handling: The exception handling mechanism in Java and Objective-C is also different. In Java, exceptions are represented as objects, and the language provides a try-catch-finally block for handling and managing exceptions. Objective-C, on the other hand, uses a combination of return values and error pointers to handle exceptions, which can be more complex and error-prone.
Library and Framework Support: Java has a vast ecosystem of libraries and frameworks that provide additional functionality and make development faster and more efficient. It has a wide range of libraries for handling various tasks such as database connectivity, web development, and GUI programming. Objective-C, while also having a variety of libraries and frameworks, is more focused on iOS and macOS development, with a strong emphasis on graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and Apple-specific features.

In summary, Java and Objective-C differ in terms of syntax, platform support, memory management, data types, exception handling, and library and framework support. These differences highlight the unique characteristics of each language and their suitability for specific development requirements.

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Advice on Java, Objective-C

Erik

Chief Architect at LiveTiles

May 18, 2020

Decided

C# and .Net were obvious choices for us at LiveTiles given our investment in the Microsoft ecosystem. It enabled us to harness of the .Net framework to build ASP.Net MVC, WebAPI, and Serverless applications very easily. Coupled with the high productivity of Visual Studio, it's the native tongue of Microsoft technology.

614k views614k

Comments

Nick

Building cool things on the internet 🛠️ at Stream

Sep 5, 2019

Review

I work at Stream and I'm immensely proud of what our team is working on here at the company. Most recently, we announced our Android SDK accompanied by an extensive tutorial for Java and Kotlin. The tutorial covers just about everything you need to know when it comes to using our Android SDK for Stream Chat. The Android SDK touches many features offered by Stream Chat – more specifically, typing status, read state, file uploads, threads, reactions, editing messages, and commands. Head over to https://getstream.io/tutorials/android-chat/ and give it a whirl!

176k views176k

Comments

Ido

Mar 6, 2020

Decided

When developing a new blockchain, we as a team chose Go lang over Java and other candidates, due to Go being (a) natively suited to concurrency - there are primitives in the language itself (goroutines, channels) that really help with reasoning about concurrency (b) super fast - build time, running, testing are all much faster that Java, this gives a far superior developer experience (c) shorter and stricter than Java - code is much shorter (less verbose), and there is usually one good way to do things, and even the code formatter that is bundled with Go is very opinionated - over a short time this makes reading other people's code far smoother than having to deal with different styles.

You should be aware that Go presently (v1.13) lacks Generics.

267k views267k

Comments

Detailed Comparison

Java	Objective-C
Java is a programming language and computing platform first released by Sun Microsystems in 1995. There are lots of applications and websites that will not work unless you have Java installed, and more are created every day. Java is fast, secure, and reliable. From laptops to datacenters, game consoles to scientific supercomputers, cell phones to the Internet, Java is everywhere!	Objective-C is a superset of the C programming language and provides object-oriented capabilities and a dynamic runtime. Objective-C inherits the syntax, primitive types, and flow control statements of C and adds syntax for defining classes and methods. It also adds language-level support for object graph management and object literals while providing dynamic typing and binding, deferring many responsibilities until runtime.
Statistics
Stacks 148.0K	Stacks 13.3K
Followers 105.5K	Followers 6.5K
Votes 3.7K	Votes 490
Pros & Cons
Pros 608 Great libraries 446 Widely used 401 Excellent tooling 396 Huge amount of documentation available 334 Large pool of developers available Cons 33 Verbosity 27 NullpointerException 17 Nightmare to Write 16 Overcomplexity is praised in community culture 12 Boiler plate code	Pros 212 Ios 115 Xcode 62 Backed by apple 47 Osx 40 Interface builder Cons 1 UNREADABLE
Integrations
Spring	No integrations available

What are some alternatives to Java, Objective-C?

JavaScript

JavaScript is most known as the scripting language for Web pages, but used in many non-browser environments as well such as node.js or Apache CouchDB. It is a prototype-based, multi-paradigm scripting language that is dynamic,and supports object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles.

Python

Python is a general purpose programming language created by Guido Van Rossum. Python is most praised for its elegant syntax and readable code, if you are just beginning your programming career python suits you best.

PHP

Fast, flexible and pragmatic, PHP powers everything from your blog to the most popular websites in the world.

Ruby

Ruby is a language of careful balance. Its creator, Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto, blended parts of his favorite languages (Perl, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada, and Lisp) to form a new language that balanced functional programming with imperative programming.

Golang

Go is expressive, concise, clean, and efficient. Its concurrency mechanisms make it easy to write programs that get the most out of multicore and networked machines, while its novel type system enables flexible and modular program construction. Go compiles quickly to machine code yet has the convenience of garbage collection and the power of run-time reflection. It's a fast, statically typed, compiled language that feels like a dynamically typed, interpreted language.

HTML5

HTML5 is a core technology markup language of the Internet used for structuring and presenting content for the World Wide Web. As of October 2014 this is the final and complete fifth revision of the HTML standard of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The previous version, HTML 4, was standardised in 1997.

C#

C# (pronounced "See Sharp") is a simple, modern, object-oriented, and type-safe programming language. C# has its roots in the C family of languages and will be immediately familiar to C, C++, Java, and JavaScript programmers.

Scala

Scala is an acronym for “Scalable Language”. This means that Scala grows with you. You can play with it by typing one-line expressions and observing the results. But you can also rely on it for large mission critical systems, as many companies, including Twitter, LinkedIn, or Intel do. To some, Scala feels like a scripting language. Its syntax is concise and low ceremony; its types get out of the way because the compiler can infer them.

Elixir

Elixir leverages the Erlang VM, known for running low-latency, distributed and fault-tolerant systems, while also being successfully used in web development and the embedded software domain.

Swift

Writing code is interactive and fun, the syntax is concise yet expressive, and apps run lightning-fast. Swift is ready for your next iOS and OS X project — or for addition into your current app — because Swift code works side-by-side with Objective-C.

Related Comparisons

Java vs Objective-C: What are the differences?

Key Differences between Java and Objective-C

Syntax: One of the major differences between Java and Objective-C is their syntax. Java uses a C-style syntax with a combination of curly braces and semicolons, making the code more readable and easier to understand. On the other hand, Objective-C uses a unique syntax that involves the use of square brackets to send messages to objects, which can be more confusing for beginners.
Platform: Java is a platform-independent language, meaning that it can run on any device or operating system that has a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) installed. This makes it highly versatile and widely used for developing cross-platform applications. In contrast, Objective-C is primarily used for developing applications for Apple's iOS and macOS platforms, making it less flexible in terms of platform support.
Memory Management: Another important difference between Java and Objective-C is their approach to memory management. Java uses automatic garbage collection, where the JVM automatically frees up memory by reclaiming objects that are no longer in use. Objective-C, on the other hand, uses a reference counting mechanism, where developers need to manually manage the memory by retaining and releasing objects.
Data Types: Java has a rich set of built-in data types, including primitive types such as int, float, and boolean. It also supports object-oriented programming concepts through its class and object system. Objective-C, on the other hand, has a smaller set of built-in data types and relies heavily on objects and classes for data manipulation.
Exception Handling: The exception handling mechanism in Java and Objective-C is also different. In Java, exceptions are represented as objects, and the language provides a try-catch-finally block for handling and managing exceptions. Objective-C, on the other hand, uses a combination of return values and error pointers to handle exceptions, which can be more complex and error-prone.
Library and Framework Support: Java has a vast ecosystem of libraries and frameworks that provide additional functionality and make development faster and more efficient. It has a wide range of libraries for handling various tasks such as database connectivity, web development, and GUI programming. Objective-C, while also having a variety of libraries and frameworks, is more focused on iOS and macOS development, with a strong emphasis on graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and Apple-specific features.

Java vs Objective-C

Overview

Java vs Objective-C: What are the differences?