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  5. Java vs Python vs Swift

Java vs Python vs Swift

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Python
Python
Stacks262.8K
Followers205.4K
Votes6.9K
GitHub Stars69.7K
Forks33.3K
Java
Java
Stacks148.0K
Followers105.5K
Votes3.7K
Swift
Swift
Stacks21.9K
Followers13.6K
Votes1.3K

Java vs Python vs Swift: What are the differences?

  1. Syntax: Java and Python have different syntaxes. Java uses curly braces and semicolons to define blocks of code and end statements, while Python relies on indentation to structure code. For example, in Java, a for loop would be written as for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) { ... }, whereas in Python, it would be written as for i in range(10):.
  2. Type System: Another key difference between Java, Python, and Swift lies in their type systems. Java has a static type system, which means the type of a variable is known at compile-time and is checked during compilation. Python, on the other hand, has a dynamic type system, where types are resolved at runtime. Swift is a statically-typed language like Java, but it incorporates type inference, allowing certain types to be inferred by the compiler.
  3. Memory Management: In Java, memory management is handled automatically by the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) through a process called garbage collection. This means that developers do not have to manually allocate or deallocate memory. In Python, memory management is also automatic, but it uses a different approach called reference counting. Swift, like Java, uses automatic reference counting for memory management, but it also includes a feature called Automatic Reference Counting (ARC) that helps manage memory usage.
  4. Concurrency: Java has built-in support for multi-threading and concurrency through the Java Concurrency API, which allows developers to create and manage threads easily. Python has a Global Interpreter Lock (GIL), which ensures that only one thread executes Python bytecode at a time, limiting the degree of parallelism. Swift, similar to Python, also has a GIL that prevents true parallel execution of threads. However, Swift provides features like Grand Central Dispatch (GCD) and async/await to handle concurrency effectively.
  5. Integration with Platforms: Java is a platform-independent language and can run on any system with a JVM. It is widely used in enterprise applications and backend systems. Python is also platform-independent, but it is more popular in areas like web development, data analysis, and scripting. Swift, initially developed for iOS and macOS development, is now also available on Linux. It is primarily used for developing applications on Apple platforms.
  6. Community and Popularity: Java has a large and active community of developers, with extensive documentation, libraries, and frameworks available. Python, known for its simplicity and readability, has gained popularity in recent years and has a strong community support. Swift, being a relatively newer language, has a growing community but is primarily focused on Apple platforms.

In Summary, Java and Python have different syntaxes, type systems, memory management approaches, concurrency mechanisms, platform integrations, and community support.

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Advice on Python, Java, Swift

Liuming
Liuming

Oct 9, 2021

Decided

Python: The top language in machine learning area because of the various open-source libraries. Our company will rely on open-source libraries for development as well.

Amazon EC2: Training machine learning model needs to be running on independent 3rd party computing resources. AWS EC2 can provide a variety of virtual computing resources based on what users need.

React+Javascript: React is popular and everyone in the team is familiar with it. React is an open-source JavaScript library that is used for building user interfaces specifically for single-page applications.

ExpressJS: Everyone in the team has used expressJS for development. It can create server-side web applications faster and smarter.

Amazon RDS: relational database service and free to use

Postman: Tool for the team to test API endpoint.

Circle CI: is lightweight and open. Therefore for faster deployment jobs, one can execute their codes on CircleCI as it deploys on scalable and robust cloud servers.

Docker: Easily pack, ship, and run any application as a lightweight, portable, self-sufficient container, which can run virtually anywhere

Github+Git: Julian is from Github so no other choice for us 😎

Slack: Everyone likes it and it's free

175k views175k
Comments
Liuming
Liuming

Oct 9, 2021

Decided

Python: Top one language in machine learning area because of the various open source libraries. Our company will rely on the open source libraries for development as well.

Amazon EC2: Training machine learning model needs to be ran on independent 3rd party computing resources. AWS EC2 can provide variety of virtual computing resources based on what users need.

React+Javascript: React is popular and everyone in the team is familiar with it. React is an open-source JavaScript library that is used for building user interfaces specifically for single-page applications.

ExpressJS: Everyone in the team has used expressJS for development. It can create server-side web applications faster and smarter.

Amazon RDS: relational database service and free to use

Postman: Tool for the team to test API end point.

Circle CI: is lightweight and open. Therefore for faster deployment jobs, one can execute their codes on CircleCI as it deploys on scalable and robust cloud servers.

Docker: Easily pack, ship, and run any application as a lightweight, portable, self-sufficient container, which can run virtually anywhere

Github+Git: Julian is from Github so no other choice for us 😎

Slack: Everyone likes it and it's free

135k views135k
Comments
DryDock
DryDock

Nov 23, 2021

Decided

We chose Rust for our web API because the Warp crate makes it easy to compose high-performance and asynchronous APIs. Rust allows us to achieve high development velocity because it provides zero-cost abstractions and enforces strict type and memory-safety checks with high quality and actionable error messages.

214k views214k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

Python
Python
Java
Java
Swift
Swift

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.

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!

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.

Statistics
GitHub Stars
69.7K
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Forks
33.3K
GitHub Forks
-
GitHub Forks
-
Stacks
262.8K
Stacks
148.0K
Stacks
21.9K
Followers
205.4K
Followers
105.5K
Followers
13.6K
Votes
6.9K
Votes
3.7K
Votes
1.3K
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 1186
    Great libraries
  • 966
    Readable code
  • 848
    Beautiful code
  • 789
    Rapid development
  • 692
    Large community
Cons
  • 53
    Still divided between python 2 and python 3
  • 28
    Performance impact
  • 26
    Poor syntax for anonymous functions
  • 22
    GIL
  • 20
    Package management is a mess
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
  • 259
    Ios
  • 180
    Elegant
  • 126
    Not Objective-C
  • 107
    Backed by apple
  • 93
    Type inference
Cons
  • 6
    Must own a mac
  • 2
    Memory leaks are not uncommon
  • 1
    Complicated process for exporting modules
  • 1
    Very irritatingly picky about things that’s
  • 1
    Its classes compile to roughly 300 lines of assembly
Integrations
Django
Django
Spring
Spring
Cocoa Touch (iOS)
Cocoa Touch (iOS)

What are some alternatives to Python, Java, Swift?

JavaScript

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.

PHP

PHP

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

Ruby

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

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

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#

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

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

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.

Rust

Rust

Rust is a systems programming language that combines strong compile-time correctness guarantees with fast performance. It improves upon the ideas of other systems languages like C++ by providing guaranteed memory safety (no crashes, no data races) and complete control over the lifecycle of memory.

Clojure

Clojure

Clojure is designed to be a general-purpose language, combining the approachability and interactive development of a scripting language with an efficient and robust infrastructure for multithreaded programming. Clojure is a compiled language - it compiles directly to JVM bytecode, yet remains completely dynamic. Clojure is a dialect of Lisp, and shares with Lisp the code-as-data philosophy and a powerful macro system.

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