Hello. I'm soon starting university as a CS major. From what I learned at orientation, my courses will be primarily in Java. However, I've spent quite some time learning C++. Is it likely that learning Java will completely confuse me while trying to learn C++ at the same time, and vice versa? Thanks for any advice you can give.

shouldn't they are basically the same

You won't be confused by learning Java and C++ at the same time; it's like trying to learn to drive while you happen to be in culinary school.

Except that in the case of Java and C++, much of the knowledge maps over. After you learn a few programming languages, it's real easy to learn others.

But all this should not matter. Computer science has as much to do with programming as astronomy does with the operation of telescopes. The programming language they use is mostly irrelevant.

if you have mastered c++ OOPs concepts then you will find java easier to understand
no you wont find java confusing

Thanks, I feel a bit less aprehensive now.

All the OO languages tend to blend together after a time, and I find it mostly a nuisance to recall the details of syntax--and remember which one I am programming in at any given time. Java and C++ should probably both be mastered--so that you can write slow or fast programs.

I hate to praise the evil empire, but I am liking c# as well, which is basically java with some of its irritations removed, and it executes faster than java as well, though it has a software VM at its core.

By the time you get done studying language theory, the idosyncracies of a given language should not be of concern. There should be a functional language like lisp, which will emphasise different areas as well. The concepts are universal and general, and each language tries to take a shot at the best implementation.

Hi everyone,

Trust me you will love java more than C++. But actually with jni you can actually put your C knowledge to good use in java.

Richard West