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What does embedded Java development programming bring for Developers?

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Java is among mature development platform that is ideally best for developing embedded apps. Java development solutions are easy to make due to the simplicity, rich set of both Open source and standard libraries and ubiquity of the java language. Things that embedded java development programming brings for developers are as follows-

  • More libraries to choose from

Code development for an app can be a real challenge for developers and especially when they are starting from the scratch. Many times, developers need to write code to bring functionality that a library should be having, however, there is not one for the platform they are leveraging.

As java has been around for so many years and even today, it is the most popular programming language in the IT world, several people have written libraries supporting almost anything. For embedded app solutions, java is a bonus for its “write once, run anywhere” thing.

Most of the libraries are released under an Open source license that implies the price of an app will not cost more.

  • Interfacing to actuators and sensors

Embedded apps require interaction with a wide variety of actuators and sensors in order to collect data and regulate external devices. There are some well-defined standards available for connecting these external devices to an embedded device, such as SPI, and serial connections through a UART. Java possesses Open source libraries to make the access to these interfaces simple for developers.

  • Multitasking

When Java was introduced to the world, it included the power to execute code in separate threads. This was not possible with other popular embedded programming languages. The Runnable interface and the Thread class make parallel code execution simpler and clear-cut. This is very crucial today, as the companies and businesses are looking at multicore processors. The ability to develop multiple threads develops parallel code.

Latest JDK 8 feature of lambda expressions and streams helps in processing the task using functional approach. Developers can easily switch between processing the data by avoiding the use of explicit loops and mutable state.

  • Use of native code from java

There are situations when developers need to use specific native code instead of using vivid variety of standard and optional APIs. Java offers them a simple method to process this and it is known as Java Native Interface. To use this interface, developers have to create references to methods they need and mark them as native.

  • Remote app debugging

Every app development project involves testing and fixing of bugs. In the case of embedded applications, testing becomes more challenging as the target device may not have a display.

Java includes an extensive set of tooling in which a range of Open source and free IDEs is available. It helps in debugging the app remotely.

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