Around the time of the article (1996) I was faced with learning either C++ or Java. When I picked up any C++ book, chances are half the text would be about how

Around the time of the article (1996) I was faced with learning either C++ or Java. When I picked up any C++ book, chances are half the text would be about how to wrestle with memory. I decided C++ wasn't for me. Java was (and still is) a C-like language with objects and fully automatic memory management. Its standard library was a lot less efficient than that of C++ but generally more pleasant to use. Another plus was the inclusion of a (bizarrely stunted pre-Swing, but still) GUI API in the standard library. The price to be paid was program startup time rivalling C++ compile times. In the early days, Java didn't have generics or containers comparable to what you see in Boost or the STL. Hash maps were there, though, and very versatile if a bit slow.