Expert: Artemus Harper - 10/31/2009

Question
Hi,
I've a strong attitude towards programming, software engineering. I want to develop some cool apps for mobiles, and open source softwares. I've a lot of things in mind. I want to know, from an expert side, which object-oriented language, C++ or Java, should I use?
- I mean which one is more effective, easily executable and your choice?
- Finally are there sites that you know which offers very good FREE tutorial on these programming languages? THANK YOU SO MUCH!


Answer
I use Java since it runs pretty fast without having many of the pitfalls of c++. The language you use often depends on the application you want to write. The biggest factor is the existing libraries you can use to help you develop your code. Aside from that, c++ allows interfacing directly with your computer, you can run applications faster (if you spend enough time at optimization on them), and interact with hardware devices. Most serious 3D games are written in c or c++ to try and squeeze out as much processor power as possible. Java is often used for scientific applications where you need reasonable development speed and good processor speed. Java is close to c in what you can do, but adds a lot of safety making it easier to debug applications. If you want to create a program quickly, but don't care about speed too much, then a scripting language like ruby or phython is a better bet.

There are plenty of tutorials online, just look up Java tutorial on a web engine for some.