I wonder why other languages do not support this feature. What I can understand that C / C++ code is platform dependent so to make it work (compile and execute) across various platform, is achieved by using preprocessor directives. And there are many other uses of this apart from this. Like you can put all your debug printf's inside #if DEBUG ... #endif. So while making the release build these lines of code do not get compiled in the binary.
But in other languages, achieving this thing (later part) is difficult (or may be impossible, I'm not sure). All code will get compiled in the binary increasing its size. So my question is "why do Java, or other modern compiled languages no support this kind of feature?" which allows you to include or exclude some piece of code from the binary in a much handy way.
Why other languages don't support something similar to preprocessor directives like C and its descendant?
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11 Answers
A other point nobody else mentioned is platform support.
Most modern languages can not run on the same platforms as C or C++ can and are not intended to run on this platforms. For example, Java, Python and also native compiled languages like C# need a heap, they are designed to run on a OS with memory management, libraries and large amount of space, they do not run in a freestanding environment. There you can use other ways to archive the same. C can be used to program controllers with 2KiB ROM, there you need a preprocessor for most applications.
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