Java is still one of the most popular languages, with a huge base of open-source software, and you should know how to take advantage of it.
By Joe Pluta
It's not surprising that two of the most popular programming languages are two of the oldest: C and Java. And while both may be waning in popularity (with Python looking to become the king of the programming hill), there's no denying that Java provides a huge ecosystem of excellent open-source functionality. As an example, I recently had the opportunity to write a streamlined wrapper around the fantastic HSSFR4 service program by Scott Klement, which in turn provides access to the Apache POIJava code that creates and maintains Excel spreadsheets. While I may get an opportunity to write about that in more detail, first I'd like to talk a little more about the basics of using Java.