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  5. Go vs Java vs JavaScript

Go vs Java vs JavaScript

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Java
Java
Stacks148.0K
Followers105.5K
Votes3.7K
Golang
Golang
Stacks24.0K
Followers13.9K
Votes3.3K
GitHub Stars130.7K
Forks18.4K
JavaScript
JavaScript
Stacks392.3K
Followers284.0K
Votes8.1K

Go vs Java vs JavaScript: What are the differences?

## Introduction
When comparing Go, Java, and JavaScript, there are several key differences that make each language unique and well-suited for certain tasks.

1. **Syntax**: Go has a simpler and more concise syntax compared to Java and JavaScript. It has fewer keywords and relies heavily on indentation, making the code more readable and less cluttered. Java, on the other hand, has a more verbose syntax due to its object-oriented nature, while JavaScript has a more flexible and dynamic syntax that allows for rapid development.
   
2. **Concurrency**: Go is known for its built-in support for concurrency through goroutines and channels, making it easier to write concurrent programs compared to Java and JavaScript. Java also supports concurrency through threads but is more complex to use. JavaScript lacks built-in support for concurrency and relies on libraries like Web Workers for parallel processing.

3. **Static Typing**: Java is a statically typed language, meaning variables must be declared with a specific type and type checking is done at compile time. Go also has static typing but allows for implicit type inference in some cases. JavaScript, on the other hand, is dynamically typed, allowing variables to hold values of any type without explicit declaration.
   
4. **Memory Management**: Go comes with a garbage collector that automatically manages memory, reducing the risk of memory leaks and other memory-related issues. Java also has garbage collection but might suffer from occasional performance overhead. JavaScript relies on automatic memory management using garbage collection but can sometimes lead to memory leaks if not handled properly.

5. **Platform Compatibility**: Java offers cross-platform compatibility through the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), allowing Java code to run on any device that has a JVM installed. Go code can also be compiled for multiple platforms, but it lacks the extensive ecosystem and support of Java. JavaScript, being a browser-based language, runs on any platform that supports a web browser, making it highly versatile for web development.

6. **Community and Ecosystem**: Java has a vast and mature ecosystem with a large community of developers, libraries, and frameworks available for various purposes. Go has a growing community and ecosystem, especially in the field of cloud computing and microservices. JavaScript has a massive community and ecosystem, particularly in web development, with numerous libraries, frameworks, and tools available for front-end and back-end development.

In Summary, Go, Java, and JavaScript differ in syntax, concurrency support, typing system, memory management, platform compatibility, and community/ecosystem, each having its strengths and weaknesses based on the specific requirements of a project.

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Advice on Java, Golang, JavaScript

Nick
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
Mohamed
Mohamed

Software Engineer at YottaHQ Inc.

Dec 2, 2019

Decided

PHP is easy to learn and you can get up and running in no time, available on almost all hosting providers and you can find developers easily. It has some great frameworks for building your backend like Symfony and Laravel. However, it can be challenging when running an enterprise and needs some adjustments, very recommended for starting a new project or startup.

208k views208k
Comments
Mike
Mike

Enterprise Architect at Warby Parker

Dec 22, 2019

Decided

When I was evaluating languages to write this app in, I considered either Python or JavaScript at the time. I find Ruby very pleasant to read and write, and the Ruby community has built out a wide variety of test tools and approaches, helping e deliver better software faster. Along with Rails, and the Ruby-first Heroku support, this was an easy decision.

258k views258k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

Java
Java
Golang
Golang
JavaScript
JavaScript

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!

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.

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.

Statistics
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Stars
130.7K
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Forks
-
GitHub Forks
18.4K
GitHub Forks
-
Stacks
148.0K
Stacks
24.0K
Stacks
392.3K
Followers
105.5K
Followers
13.9K
Followers
284.0K
Votes
3.7K
Votes
3.3K
Votes
8.1K
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
  • 557
    High-performance
  • 398
    Simple, minimal syntax
  • 365
    Fun to write
  • 305
    Easy concurrency support via goroutines
  • 273
    Fast compilation times
Cons
  • 43
    You waste time in plumbing code catching errors
  • 25
    Verbose
  • 23
    Packages and their path dependencies are braindead
  • 16
    Google's documentations aren't beginer friendly
  • 15
    Dependency management when working on multiple projects
Pros
  • 1671
    Can be used on frontend/backend
  • 1497
    It's everywhere
  • 1163
    Lots of great frameworks
  • 899
    Fast
  • 746
    Light weight
Cons
  • 24
    A constant moving target, too much churn
  • 20
    Horribly inconsistent
  • 16
    Javascript is the New PHP
  • 9
    No ability to monitor memory utilitization
  • 8
    Shows Zero output in case of ANY error
Integrations
Spring
Spring
Revel
Revel
Martini
Martini
No integrations available

What are some alternatives to Java, Golang, JavaScript?

Python

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

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.

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.

Swift

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.

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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