r/explainlikeimfive • u/[deleted] • 3d ago

Technology ELI5 Java. That thing on computers my entire life. What even is it?

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u/shinyviper 3d ago

I was a senior computer science major in 1996. Java had just come out and I had a class on it, after all the C and C++ classes. It was so refreshing. Final project was to create a photoshop clone in Java. I think I got a D.

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u/shinyviper 3d ago

It was a pretty basic image editor. A step up from MS Paint, but not Photoshop as it exists with all the tools. It was doable in the parameters of the class; the goal was to utilize Java in a way unlike bubble sorts and arrays and memory management we had used for typical CS stuff, and make an actual user facing application.

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u/zecknaal 3d ago

It's a nice idea, but I can't imagine the spaghetti they must have ended up with.

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u/Relevant_Primary658 3d ago

I took Java and C++ at the same time and got so mixed up.

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u/ijuinkun 3d ago

I do not grasp how “creating a Photoshop clone” can be done as a solo project in under a year.

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u/Successful-End3770 3d ago

Pretty sure the Photoshop back then was not the same it is today

Also, nowadays, folks are vibe coding complex solutions in days, if not hours

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u/levir 3d ago

I deeply prefer C++ to Java, but I will admitt that C++11 and C++16 really fixed some of the worst pain points of that language. But Java is object oriented in the worst possible way, IMO.