Java is a general-purpose, high-level, robust, object-oriented and secured programming language and a computing platform. Java programming language is class-based, object-oriented, and specifically designed to be platform independent.
The reason behind which led to the development of Java was to let the developers “write once, run anywhere” means that code compiled once can run on all platforms that support Java without recompilation. Java programs are converted to bytecode when they compiled that can run on any Java virtual machine (JVM) regardless of computer architecture.
Java is one of the most popular programming languages with 3+ billion devices running on Java, mostly client-server web applications.
Note: A platform is an environment that helps to develop and run programs written in any programming language
Development History of Java Programming
Java was originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems which later acquired by Oracle Corporation and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems’ Java platform. Much of Java’s syntax derived from C and C++, but it has fewer low-level facilities.
Java language project initiated by James Gosling, Mike Sheridan, and Patrick Naughton in June 1991. Java programming language initially developed for television but it was too advance for digital television that time.
The language was initially named “Oak” because of an oak tree outside Gosling’s office. Later the named “Green” and was finally renamed “Java”, from Java coffee. Java designed with a C/C++-style syntax that system and application programmers would find familiar.
Primary intent led to the creation of the Java language:
- It must be “simple, object-oriented, and familiar”.
- It must be “robust and secure”.
- It must be “architecture-neutral and portable”.
- It must execute with “high performance”.
- It must be “interpreted, threaded, and dynamic”.
First public implementation of Java released by Sun Microsystems in 1996 as Java 1.0. On November 13, 2006, Sun released much of its Java virtual machine (JVM) as free and open-source software, under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL).
On May 8, 2007, Sun completed the process of making all of its JVM’s core code available under open-source distribution terms, aside from a small portion of code to which Sun did not hold the copyright.
In the next article, you will study the various Java Versions and there major significant changes along the way.