JAVA and JAVA SCRIPT: Understanding the Differences

 
In all my time as a software developer, I have seen people including new/aspiring developers and non-developers who get confused by the names Java and JavaScript. The similarity in name leads people to think that they both have a lot of similarities in terms of syntax and use cases, I know I did as a beginner.
So, in case you have been wondering how and why these two very popular programming languages differ especially given the similarity in names, then this article is made just for you.
A BRIEF HISTORY
JavaScript (also called ECMAScript) was written by Brendan Eich who was working for a company called Netscape Communications who was behind the project at the time and its original name was “Mocha”. It was originally intended to complement Java as a web programming language, it was later renamed to LiveScript in 1995 when the beta version was released which was subsequently renamed to JavaScript shortly after in the same year. JavaScript has grown to be one of the most popular programming languages used not only on the web but also in mobile and desktop applications.
Java, on the other hand, was initiated in 1991 by James Gosling, Mike Sheridan, and Patrick Naughton. It was originally designed for interactive televisions but was later renamed Java after the Java coffee from Indonesia. Java was designed by Gosling with C/C++ style syntax so that existing developers will find it familiar. The first public implementation of java was released in 1996.
THE DIFFERENCES
Now that we have gotten the history out of the way, let us get into the meat of the article and that is understanding the actual differences between both languages.
⦁ Syntax
Java and JavaScript both have very different syntaxes and that is because of the style of typing they have.
Java is strongly typed (or static) programming language because every variable must be declared with a data type and a value that does not reflect the data type cannot be assigned later on in the code. For example, a Boolean variable cannot be assigned a string or integer value. Java is also usually criticized for its “complicated” syntax.
JavaScript is a more dynamic language and is loosely typed as data types must not be assigned to variables when they are declared and therefore a variable with an integer value can be assigned a string value later on in the code.
⦁ Execution
Programs written in Java has to be compiled into byte code that the machine it is running on can understand before execution by the java virtual machine. This is a key difference between both languages.
JavaScript, on the other hand, is an interpreted or scripting language and as a result, code written in JavaScript is interpreted to machine code by the JavaScript engine during runtime. You would realize that JavaScript has no compilation step and this is why it is called a scripting language.
⦁ Runtime Environment
Java runs inside a virtual machine called the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) which enables it to be platform agnostic which simply means it can run on virtually any platform as far as the java virtual machine is installed.
JavaScript, on the other hand, is the default language of the web as it was originally intended for web browsers but it can now run on servers using a JavaScript runtime known as Nodejs. The web is the main environment for JavaScript.
⦁ Programming Paradigms
These two languages differ greatly in their programming paradigms in which they are mainly based on which depending on who you ask is either a strength or weakness. Programming paradigms include; Functional Programming, Object-Oriented Programming, Imperative and Logical Programming.
Java is an object-oriented programming language (OOP) which is based mainly on the inheritance of properties from classes.
JavaScript is a multi-paradigm programming language and as a result, it supports functional, object-oriented, and imperative programming paradigms. JavaScript officially added support for object-oriented programming by the inclusion of Classes in 2015 when ECMA 6 now known as ECMA 2015 was released.
FINAL WORDS
From the differences listed above, you can see that both languages have more differences than the similarity in the name would suggest to the uninitiated. Amidst all the differences in both languages (some of which are not listed here), both languages still have some things in common. Like the ability for java to be used on the web and the ability of JavaScript to run almost anywhere because of the popularity of the web and web views embedded in most popular operating systems. They are also similar due to the fact that they both support the object-oriented programming paradigm.