Although
it is based on C++, Java is more of a “pure” object-oriented
language.
Both
C++ and Java are hybrid languages, but in Java the designers felt that the
hybridization was not as important as it was in C++. A hybrid language allows
multiple programming styles; the reason C++ is hybrid is to support backward
compatibility with the C language. Because C++ is a superset of the C language,
it includes many of that language’s undesirable features which can make
some aspects of C++ overly complicated.
The
Java language assumes that you want to do only object-oriented programming.
This means that before you can begin you must shift your mindset into an
object-oriented world (unless it’s already there)
.
The benefit of this initial effort is the ability to program in a language that
is simpler to learn and to use than many other OOP languages. In this chapter
we’ll see the basic components of a Java program and we’ll learn
that everything in Java is an object, even a Java program.