Chapter 1. Why add Groovy to Java?

For all of its flaws (and we’ll be reviewing them shortly), Java is still the dominant object-oriented programming language in the industry today. It’s everywhere, especially on the server side, where it’s used to implement everything from web applications to messaging systems to the basic infrastructure of servers. It’s therefore not surprising that there are more Java developers and more Java development jobs available than for any other programming language. As a language, Java is an unmitigated success story.

If Java is so ubiquitous and so helpful, why switch to anything else? Why not continue using Java everywhere a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) is available?

In this book, the answer to that question is, go right ahead. Where Java works for you and gets the job done, by all means continue to use it. I expect that you already have a Java background and don’t want to lose all that hard-earned experience. Still, there are problems that Java solves easily, and problems that Java makes difficult. For those difficult issues, consider an alternative.

1.1. Issues with Java

1.2. Groovy features that help Java

1.3. Java use cases and how Groovy helps

1.4. Summary