Java Vs JavaScript

3 min readMar 4, 2021

Confused about Java and JavaScript? Here is a basic idea to help differentiate the two programming languages . As we read down, let’s dive deep in to the technical level.

Java is to JavaScript what Car is to Carpet. This is the simplest and easiest way to define the disparity between the two terms. Let’s have a quick introduction about these two.

Java

Java is a class-based, object-oriented programming language that is designed to have as few implementation dependencies as possible.

Java is a programming language and a computing platform initially released by Sun Microsystems in 1995. A group of Sun Microsystem engineers called the “Green Team” started developing Java in 1991. It took around four years to develop Java. Though it was released in 1995, several new versions have been launched since then. Java is currently owned by Oracle. Now Java has become one of the leading OOP programming language all over the world.

JavaScript

JS is the abbreviated term of JavaScript. JS is a programming language that follows the ECMAScript specifications. JavaScript is high-level language often just-in-time compiled.

In 1990 Navigator was one of the most popular web browser. A developer named Brendan Eich at Netscape, Inc. developed a programming language called “Livescript” to instruct the computer on how to handle the user above receiving user inputs. Then he directly integrated Livescript into Navigator. This language did not require a separate plug-in to function. So, Netscape identified the potential of this language and named it as JavaScript.

Let’s have a look into the similarities and differences of Java & JavaScript

Applications

Java is a widely used language of range in place such as, Android applications, credit card programming and in the creation of desktop applications and web enterprise applications. Java is used as the server-side language for most back-end developments.

But when it comes to JavaScript, it is mainly used for making web pages more interactive. JavaScript is a popular language that has more functionalities compared to other alternatives as Flash. Creating animation in HTML can be done neatly using JavaScript.

Key differences

Java code must be compiled, and JavaScript code is all-text.
Each language requires different plug-ins.
JavaScript code runs on browsers only, while Java creates applications that run in a virtual machine(JVM) or browser.
Java is an OOP (object-oriented programming) language, and JavaScript is specifically an OOP scripting language.

Syntax

If we write a code to display “Hello World”, it would appear in these two as follows:

Java :-

class Example{
 public static void main(String args[]){
     System.out.println("Hello World");
 }
}

JavaScript :-

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Example JavaScript code</title>
    <script>
        alert("Hello World!");
    </script>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>

More:

As Initially mentioned, Java to JavaScript is like car is to carpet, so, there is no better language of these two; Only the application and what each of these are capable of doing is entirely different.

I hope this would give you a basic idea of the two programming languages, Java and JavaScript.

References: https://www.thesoftwareguild.com/ ,https://www.guru99.com/

Java Vs JavaScript

Java

JavaScript

Written by Sanduni Galagoda