Introduction to Apache Groovy Language

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Apache Groovy is an object-oriented programming language which is based on Java platform. So, if you already have some knowledge of Java you will feel very comfortable with this language. It was first introduced in 2003 by James Strachan in his blog but later in 2004 it was discontinued for some reason.

It was brought back in 2005 and its first official version was launched in 2007. In 2015 it becomes the project at Apache Software foundation.

  • This is used mainly for the java platform and is both static and dynamic.
  • Apache Groovy Is Open-Source
  • Groovy has all the Ruby, Pearl, Python, and Smalltalk similarities.
  • It is used as both Scripting and Programming languages
  • It also provide support for DSL, dynamic typing, operator overloading and closures.

Compared to java, this groovy is a super version of it which offers Java's enterprise abilities. Most valid Java files are also valid Groovy files. 

  • Most of the syntaxes are identical to java, as the curly brackets.
  • Source of groovy compiles in java bytecode
  • So, where there is JRE, there is groovy.
  • Using Groovy you can develop project faster and easier.
  • Apache Groovy is one of the programming languages that can complement and in some cases even replace Java.
  • Java and Groovy have different integration capabilities.
  • Groovy is testing-oriented development language which provides excelant support for running tests.
  • Also, it provides native support for regular expressions and markup languages like XML and HTML.

The choice between the two languages is situational and will depend on the specific requirements of a particular project.

Java may be a good choice if scalability and performance are critical. Groovy programming can be successfully used for various scenarios like string manipulation, automation, data crunching and experimenting with APIs.