Anyone else despise the JAVA API?

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Randwulf
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Anyone else despise the JAVA API?

Post by Randwulf »

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You can't search it, so if you're like most normal non-masochistic people and you import entire packages rather than the specific things you need, you may be lost.

There are barely any examples in it and they usually aren't very useful.

It's horrifically ugly.

The language is often a bit abstruse, and it doesn't help that many of the methods are described in only one sentence.

Deprecated methods that absolutely no one would have use for are not removed. So it's a bit cluttered.
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The PHP API feels like a masterpiece compared to Java's. It's full of useful examples, can be commented in, is easily searchable, and is well-styled.
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Chris Corbyn
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Re: Anyone else despise the JAVA API?

Post by Chris Corbyn »

I actually found Sun's documentation to be fantastic. They have a whole bunch of tutorials for stuff like J2EE, AWT and Swing. The rest of the documentation is pure API documentation which is only supposed to be for reference, not for learning.

EDIT | I've searched the java site loads of times too. The search box is right there at the top of the main page.
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jayshields
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Re: Anyone else despise the JAVA API?

Post by jayshields »

Yeah, the Java API is fine. I've got a Java API search engine plug-in/extension thing in my Firefox search bar, so I just search it from there.
mickeyunderscore
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Re: Anyone else despise the JAVA API?

Post by mickeyunderscore »

Interesting opinion, I'd have thought most people would be of the opposite opinion. Considering the inconsistent naming/parameter ordering of the PHP functions I'd have thought that would prove more difficult.

Maybe one of the problems is that the Java API is massive e.g. when I first started out, I found it difficult to find what I wanted, simply due to the sheer volume of stuff. I remember on my course we were given a handbook which basically acted as a guide to the Java API and it was very thick, daunting and almost scary.

However though, I find that my IDE of choice (netBeans), allows you to add auto-imports. So you just code the bits you need, tell the IDE to auto-import and it will only import the specifics, and not entire packages, this helps with importing, though I'll admit it doesn't help with finding what you need.

I do like the PHP API despite the criticisms, as it is very well documented (as you said). But I think the main reason I get on so well with the PHP API is because I have written a lot of code in PHP, and also with PHP you don't need to use import so you can randomly place PHP functions everywhere you like without thinking. When I was new to PHP though, I remember being daunted by the sheer mass of confusing, inconsistently named, randomly parameterized functions provided by the PHP API. I suppose with time, you can get used to/comfortable with anything.
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