We chose Java as the implementation language of our project not
only because it is becoming a more and more popular programming language, but
also because its major features fit our need quite well.
Java is a new computer language that uses many of the same language
constructs as C and C++. It is a more elegant object-oriented
language than C++, and a simpler language than C. The most important
simplicification in Java is that it does not use pointers, which are
one of the most bug-prone aspects of C and C++ programming. The other
simplification is that Java automatically does garbage collection. In
graphical software with large and complex data structures such as this project,
these features provide the potential for building high quality software.
One of the reasons Java has become a great success in the past several
months is because it is a platform-independent language. With different interpreters
on different machines, Java executable(byte-code) can run on almost any
platform. Our animation software can run on any platform that supports
Java - PC or workstation.
Java provides strong and direct support to graphical operations and animation,
and many small Java applets(Java programs in web pages) show this Java's
capability. With the addition of some special methods to improve the
animation, the result in this project is quite satisfactory.
The only drawback of Java is that it is an interpreted language. Unlike C++,
Java executable is interpreted at runtime. This will influence the performance
of applications, especially those which need real time processing. To obtain
reasonable performance, we have to avoid unnecessary calculations whenever
possible in our design.