Pros and Cons - a Short List

This document was written by CS 290W TA Joshua Kay and was last modified

Advantages

We can develop code on any platform. This means we can write a program on a PC and run it on every Sun workstation at Purdue.
-Takes less time to develop.
-Costs less money

Internet and World-Wide Web are ideal platforms for this type of activity

Disadvantages

Slower than C or C++
-This is because it has to be interpreted at runtime

example: I am giving a lecture for SIA in Japan. However I don't know Japanese, so I need an interpreter. Hence my speech will take much longer than if I delivered it in Japanese myself.

There are other advantages and disadvantages we will discuss throughout the class.