Book Image

Introduction to JVM Languages

By : van der Leun
Book Image

Introduction to JVM Languages

By: van der Leun

Overview of this book

Anyone who knows software development knows about the Java Virtual Machine. The Java Virtual Machine is responsible for interpreting Java byte code and translating it into actions. In the beginning, Java was the only programming language used for the JVM. But increasing complexity of the language and the remarkable performance of the JVM created an opening for a new generation of programming languages. If you want to build a strong foundation with the Java Virtual Machine and get started with popular modern programming languages, then this book is for you. The book will begin with a general introduction of the JVM and its features, which are common to the JVM languages, helping you get abreast with its concepts. It will then dive into explaining languages such as Java, Scala, Clojure, Kotlin, and Groovy and will show how to work with each language, their features, use cases, and pros and cons. By writing example projects in those languages and focusing on each language’s strong points, it will help you find the programming language that is most appropriate for your particular needs. By the end of the book, you will have written multiple programs that run on the Java Virtual Machine and know about the differences between the various languages.
Table of Contents (15 chapters)

Summary


In this chapter, we implemented a simple web service with Groovy, using various technologies. We started by installing the Groovy Eclipse plugin for Eclipse IDE and the Apache IvyDE plugin for Eclipse for dependency management. We embedded the H2 DBMS in our application and communicated with it using the JDBC industry standard. We created two tables and populated both the tables with an example record. We generated an XML based on the database content by using Groovy's MarkupBuilder class, a class that is made possible because Groovy is a dynamic programming language. We initially created a simple console program, but after exploring the Vert.x framework, we changed it into a web service.

By now, we have covered all the five main languages that are covered in this book: Java, Scala, Clojure, Kotlin, and Groovy. We hope that this book helped you find your favorite JVM language. There are even more JVM languages available, though. The appendix will discuss some dialects of mainstream...