Author: Russell Reagan
Date: 07:33:52 05/09/02
I've recently started learning Java, and I am curious how suitable it is for writing a chess program in comparison with C or C++. The main issue would seem to be that Java has generally been seen as having a significant performance hit when compared with compiled C or even compiled C++. I think a lot of things in the computer world get a bad reputation if they have some drawback when they are initially released. So is this still a major issue today? I like a lot of things Java has to offer, and it seems like I could develop a program quicker in Java, and at the same time write a portable GUI for it, make it playable from a web browser, and so on. Having said all of that, I'd still like to have a good chess program and eventually enter it into some of the amateur tournaments like maybe CCT5 (if and when that occurs). So would I be making a mistake by choosing Java due to it's lack of raw speed in comparison to C or C++, or is this not that big of a deal unless I'm going to be overly concerned with super-optimization way down the line? In the book, "Java in a Nutshell", the author writes: "Although early releases of Java suffered from performance problems, the speed of the Java VM has improved dramatically with each new release...Java programs can execute at speeds comparable to the speeds of native C and C++ applications." So while this is true for some applications where performance isn't even an issue, like maybe a word processor, is this true for a chess program or other game playing programs? Thanks, Russell
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