Java is not JavaScript

Recently I’ve been taking notes on some tweets and job offers from different individuals and companies around the world and there are 2 common mistakes I see everywhere:

  1. WordPress is spelled exactly like this – with a capital ‘W’ and a capital ‘P’. Please don’t hire people for yourself if you are not aware of the correct platform name.
  2. JavaScript is not Java!

As a developer with Java background myself I feel pretty much confused when someone is hiring developers with: “PHP, MySQL, HTML, CSS, Java”. Unless you’re using a Java bridge to design a Java backend and a PHP frontend (which would still be dummy with the MySQL on the back) I feel free to assume that JavaScript is the skill you’re looking for instead.

Let’s summarize it in a quick reference table for your future convenience.

Java JavaScript
By James Gosling at Sun Microsystems (bought by Oracle) By Brendan Eich, in-house Netscape product
virtual language, compiles to bytecode running on a JVM prototype-based scripting language
static, type safe dynamic, weekly typed
Suitable for server programming, desktop, web, mobile Mostly web related (or web wrappers for other applications)
Server side language Mostly client-side (running in browser) except for node.js alike implementations
File extensions: .java (source), .class (compiled) Extension: .js
Used for enterprise projects, server management, transactions, high level development, highly secure; Android is Java-based Used for web client interactions – tabs, sliders, lightbox and other effects, AJAX for server communication and node.js for server work

Please take a note here and use every language name where applicable. Java is way different than JavaScript. There are frameworks such as Google Web Toolkit that help developers write Java code which is further compiled to HTML and JavaScript. Also, JavaScript could be used together with a number of other languages as well, such as: PHP, C# (ASP.NET), Ruby, Python, Perl etc.

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