Understanding Java vs JavaScript

People often confuse different things with their common names, features, structures, etc..; here, we see a similar confusion between Java and JavaScript languages.

The similarity in the names of Java and JavaScript will confuse most people. Do they really similar in terms of applications, structure, features, etc…..?

Or is it just confusion because of their names?

Let’s find out.

Java

Java is a high-level, class-based, object-oriented programming language. And it’s a general-purpose programming language. We can run compiled Java code in any system. It’s platform-independent. It follows the principle Write Once, Run Anywhere. All we need is JRE (Java Runtime Environment) to the run code.

It is one of the most popular programming languages at the time. There are different features of Java that attract developers towards it. Now, over 3 billion devices are running Java.

Features

There will be many unique and common features in every programming language. Here, we are going to see some features of Java.

Object-Oriented

Java is the complete object-oriented programming language. It follows the object model as everything in it is an Object. Following object-oriented programming, the paradigm solves many problems itself.

Platform Independent

As seen before, Java is platform-independent. We can run it on any platform and system. Java uses the JRE environment for the execution of the code.

High Performance

Java uses the compiler called JIT (Just-in-Time). It enables high performance in the execution of Java code. Java uses both compiler and interpreter. It runs faster than many programming compilers and interpreters.

Multi-threading

Multi-threading allows us to execute multiple tasks simultaneously, which saves a lot of time. We can use multi-threading in the Java code. We can break down the larger task and use multi-threading to complete it more fastly than the traditional way.

Little Past

Sun Microsystems created Java in the year 1995. The first name of Java is Oak. It was changed to Java by Dr. Java (James Gosling) and his team because of the existence of a company with the same name called Oak.

Applications

There are mainly 4 types of applications that we can develop using Java.

Let’s see them one by one.

#1. Standalone Applications

Standalone applications are also known as Desktop applications. Most of us use different applications on our systems like browsers, productivity software, media applications, games, etc..,

Java Swing widget toolkit is used to develop windows based desktop applications. And we can use the QT cross-platform application framework for the development of ubuntu-based desktop applications. Qt Jambi is designed especially for Java-based on QT.

#2. Web Applications

There are lots of web applications that we use in our day-to-day life. Some of the examples of web applications are Twitter, Youtube, WordPress, etc..; we can create web applications in Java with the help of different frameworks like Spring, Hibernate, Servlet, etc..,

#3. Enterprise Applications

Enterprise applications are high-level applications dealing with huge amounts of data and users with lots of security. Banking applications are the major enterprise applications. We can develop enterprise applications using EJB (Enterprise Java Bean) in Java.

#4. Mobile Applications

The entire android was developed with Java. Google still suggests Java for the android app development despite many cross-platform frameworks. We can develop android applications using Java and android studio.

JavaScript

Javascript is a lightweight, interpreted, or just-in-time compiled programming language. And it is one of the most popular programming languages. JavaScript is one of the core languages of the world wide web, along with HTML and CSS.

It’s known as the scripting language of the web from the start. But, different environments like Node, Deno, etc.., enable it to run on different platforms.

It’s a high-level, multi-paradigm, dynamic, prototype-based programming language. The JavaScript acts based on the ECMAScript specifications. Every web application must use JavaScript for user interaction. There is no alternative for it.

Features

Let’s see some of the features of JavaScript.

Dynamic

There are not types in JavaScript. It’s a boon as well as a curse for the developers. It’s easy to write code and difficult to debug. There is a super of set of JavaScript which added types to it, i.e.., TypeScript.

Platform Independent

JavaScript can run inside any browser with a JavaScript engine. And it can also be executed in different environments using Node and other JavaScript environments.

Asynchronous and Synchronous

JavaScript allows us to code asynchronously and synchronously. Synchronous allows us to execute the statements one after another. Statement won’t execute until the execution of the previous. Asynchronous allows us to execute the statements without waiting for the completion of previous statements.

Functions

Functions in JavaScript are powerful. These are the building blocks of JavaScript. It allows different syntax and modes to write functions.

Browser

We can do almost anything in a browser that a web application needs. JavaScript allows us to control manipulate DOM, validations of data, controlling browser tabs, screen mode, etc..,

Little Past

Brandan Eich created JavaScript in 1995. He is a programmer in Netscape. He created it within 10 days, which is unbelievable.

JavaScript is first named Mocha. And later, it’s changed to LiveScript and then to JavaScript.

The change from LiveScript to JavaScript is done because of the license agreement between Sun and Netscape. It’s like marketing, as Java is a hot programming language at the time.

What is ECMAScript? JavaScript is grown tremendously within 2 years of its release. Netscape can’t maintain it all alone. So, Netscape handed it to the ECMA (European Computer Manufacturers Association) to maintain and develop the language specifications. And the language specifications are labeled as ECMA-262 and ECMAScript.

Applications

JavaScript allows us to develop different kinds of applications. Let’s see them one by one.

#1. Web Applications

JavaScript has been created for the web. And it’s not surprising that we can develop web applications with it. There are many frameworks like React, Vue, Angular, etc.., to easily develop web applications. All of these frameworks were completely written in JavaScript.

#2. Standalone Applications

Electron is the framework to develop cross-platform desktop applications. It allows us to develop cross-platform desktop applications using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Github created the Electron and maintain it. The major text editor for JavaScript developers, i.e.., VS Code is developed using JavaScript.

#3. Mobile Applications

We can develop mobile applications using JavaScript as well. It’s not as effective as Java. But, we can develop cross-platform mobile applications using different frameworks like React Native, Ionic, etc..,

#4. Games

We can develop mobile and browser games using JavaScript. Different JavaScript engines like Phaser, Pixi.js, Babylon.js, etc.., to develop cross-platform games.

Java Vs. JavaScript

Did you find any similarities or any relation between Java and JavaScript?

I think you didn’t (except for the agreement between their companies). Yeah, that’s the only relation between Java and JavaScript. Both Java and JavaScript are completely different in their semantics, syntax, etc..,

Code

Let’s see the Hello, World program in both languages.

Java

class Main {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    System.out.println("Hello, World!");
  }
}

JavaScript

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Geekflare</title>
    <link href="style.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
  </head>
  <body>
    <script>
        alert("Hello, World!");
    </script>
  </body>
</html>

console.log("Hello, World!");

If you see the programs of Java and JavaScript, you can observe that there is no similarity between them. There are completely different from one another.

Naming Convention

The naming convention followed by both Java and JavaScript is similar. Both Java and JavaScript follow the camelCase naming convention as the standard one.

We can compare the features of Java and JavaScript if we want to. But, those things are common among different programming languages. As a whole, the core points of creating and using Java and JavaScript are completely different.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are no similarities between Java and JavaScript. They are two different worlds. And they are one of the top languages in their area. People often confuse with their similarity in names. Both Java and JavaScript are popular programming languages. There is a whole website called JavaScriptIsNotJava saying that JavaScript and Java are two different languages.

Happy Knowing 🙂