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0 pointsspricket7y ago0 comments

Java would take the cake in almost anything speed measure you mentioned. Golang is the only one comparable in memory throughput and latency. Java with async IO like Vert.X can do higher concurrency than Erlang. As can Go.

IMO Java is the most well rounded language, but I'm not trying to convince you of that.

Also there's nothing with java that stops threads from being restarted. In a modern web framework it's virtually impossible to crash the JVM. You just crash a thread, at most (usually the framework catches the exception and it doesn't even do that). Java is also hot reloadable if you use the right framework.

Your tooling argument doesn't make much sense IMO. You can attach to a Go binary but that's about it. Attaching to a VM or interpreter will tell you almost nothing. I would wager you haven't used a Java profile if you're making these arguments. It's vastly superior to anything but maybe C#

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ilovecaching7y ago

Can do higher concurrency is a nonsensical phrase. Please show me your benchmarks versus Erlang at 10M web socket connections.

You’re not understanding what I’m talking about when I say restarting. I’m talking about the JVM process. I also just said hot reloading is counter to modern practices.

You’re not understanding what I told you.

spricketOP7y ago

Newer versions of Java cache compiled classes. The startup time is maybe 10 seconds for something big running Java 11.

You can also compile AOT for some performance loss at runtime but zero startup time. Android has been doing this forever but you can also do it on a PC using Graal.

And yes Java will destroy Erlang at concurrent connections if you use an async framework like Vert.X or fibers using Quasar/Comsat. It has lower per thread overhead than Erlang and runs code faster in general.

Both Java and Erlang will max out Linux TCP connections before running out of steam so this is kinda academic though

gerbilly7y ago

If you want to build systems at scale you want to use a lot of commodity boxes, not a few huge or 'special' machines.

I don't drool over the raw horsepower of each of my individual boxes.[1] All I care about is that I can cost effectively create a cluster of them to serve the application's needs.

Because of this, even if Java could not handle as many concurrent connections, you might still chose it over this fabled 10M socket erlang server you keep talking about.

You might chose Java because:

* It is well understood and has a lot of mature libraries surrounding it.

* You can easily hire people to work on it.

* It is a stable language.

And so on...

I would summarize your original post like this: "I don't like Java, I prefer other things," which is fine as far as it goes, but then you basically say: "Therefore, everyone should also prefer the same things I do," which does not follow.

[1] I never particularly cared how many fps I can get on my machine, and I'm not that chuffed about my machine's geekbench score. IMHO this obsession with hardware metrics beyond diminishing returns is mostly a gamer thing.

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