Will Java go native?

[Russel Winder]

On Wed, 2013-09-18 at 23:33 +0200, Chris wrote:
> Seeing that more and more developers and companies look for or 
> actively develop native languages, I wonder will Java go native 
> one day? (Cf. 
> http://docs.oracle.com/cd/A97336_01/buslog.102/a83727/jtools5.htm)
> 
> Is this Java's only chance to keep up with Go and Rust (and D)? 

No. It isn't even an option in the sense you intimate. As others have
said there are Java → native compilers and there is a thriving, albeit
relatively small, market there. OpenJDK will remain proudly a JVM,
compile to bytecode, language.

> Performance is an issue, no matter how fast your processor is, 
> Java always lags behind*. And the JVM installation horror is bad 
> enough for developers, but for users? Now Java apps are often 
> shipped with a version of the JRE included, which smells of 
> defeat. If Oracle want to save Java (after so many "unfortunate" 
> decisions), will they finally go native? I can see a market for 
> that. There are still a lot of Java developers out there, there 
> are loads of Java apps, Java has GUI libraries etc.

And Windows native code applications don't ship with a version of all
the Windows DLLs for every application?

Java is no longer under-performant compared to C, C++, Fortran, D, Go,
Rust. Check the benchmarks.

Since when is Java hard to install. I am tracking JDK8 which has
releases every 2 weeks. I reinstall an entire Java distribution on 4
machines in a matter of 15 mins, which includes download of 500MB of
stuff.

Shipping a JRE is not defeat, where did you get this idea from? Or
perhaps you are satirizing WORA (which is and always has been a bit of a
joke ever since Java 1.2).

Re the Oracle jibe. Yes they made some bad decisions, but then the JCP
EC took over and the users took a voice. SouJava and LJC (of which I am
a member) rattled all the cages of the complacent JCP EC and have
reinvigourated contribution from users. OpenJDK is a great success cf.
AdopJDK, AdoptAJSR programs . Oracle (who still make some mistakes re
Java it is true) and IBM have re-energized their contributions, as have
others.

> *Java's sluggish performance was what made me look for 
> alternatives in the first place, and I found D.

I accept this as true as it is a statement by you about your decision
making, but Java 8 is not Java 1. Early desktop Java was pure
interpretation, and hence slow. Modern Java, via the JIT, generally
executes native code. With Java 7 and method handles and invokedynamic,
the world changed even more and now computationally intensive codes can
run basically as fast using Java as using C, C++, Fortran, D, Rust, Go.
(After initial "warm up" of the JIT.)

There is data out there backing this up but I know how much members of
this list abhor benchmarks, eh Walter ;-)

Yes this was an anti-FUD rant on behalf of the "Java as a language has a
few issues, even Java 8, but the JVM is a thriving platform that has a
strong future and cannot be ignored" party.

-- 
Russel.
=============================================================================
Dr Russel Winder      t: +44 20 7585 2200   voip: sip:russel.winder at ekiga.net
41 Buckmaster Road    m: +44 7770 465 077   xmpp: russel at winder.org.uk
London SW11 1EN, UK   w: www.russel.org.uk  skype: russel_winder
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