JAVA - What You Need to Know About It

Initially, Java was not developed for the Internet programming. The Java designers later added the functions such as distributed, security, and portability that make Internet programming simpler to develop using Java. You can use Java to develop network-oriented programs because networking features are built-in in Java.

In 1991, a team of software developers at Sun Microsystems, USA, was designing a language for consumer electronic devices. The development team headed by James Gosling wanted to design a portable language using which programs that could run on computers with different platforms. The team aimed at programming the devices from different manufacturers so that the devices could be controlled by a single remote control. They also wanted the language to be simple so that anyone can learn it In less time. The team considered C++ as the model language for designing Java language. The team deprecated various ambiguous features from this new language. Initially, this developed language was called Oak, but was later renamed to Java.

1990 - Sun Microsystems developed software to manipulate electronic devices.

1991 - A new language named Oak was introduced using the most popular object-oriented language C++.

1993 - The WWW appeared on the Internet that transformed the text-based Internet into graphical Internet

1994 - Sun Microsystems team developed a Web browser called HotJava to locate and run applet programs on the Internet.

1995 - Oak was renamed as Java.

1996 - Java was established as Object oriented programming language.

Thus, Java is the first pure object oriented language that takes into account the object oriented theory. The best feature of Java is that it is platform independent which means, it can run on any operating system and is not restricted to a particular operating system or a particular machine. Java programs can run on mobile phone, computers, chips, etc. Java is being widely used across various devices and applications including web applications that can be run directly on the internet.

Need for Java

You can use Java to develop network-oriented programs because networking features are built-in features in Java. You can use Java to write a variety of applications. A few types of Java applications are:

Applications that use Character User Interface (CUI): Applications are executable programs that are controlled by the operating system. These applications have an access to the system resources, such as file systems and can read and write to files on local computers.

Applications that use Graphical User Interface (GUI): These applications are used in the Windows environment. In GUI, you interact with the application in graphical mode.

Applets: Applets are small executable programs that run on a Web page. These programs require a Java-enabled browser, such as Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator. Applets have limited access to system resources.

Servlets: Servlets are the programs that are used to extend the functionality of Web servers.

Packages: Packages are collections of classes that can be reused by applications and applets.

Most programming languages are platform dependent. Applications developed by using such programming languages can run only on those types of hardware and software platforms on which the applications are compiled. Compilation of an application refers to conversion of the program instructions, written in a programming language, to the language that the computer can understand.

Java is a platform independent language that enables you to compile an application on one platform and execute it on any platform. This saves your effort to write and compile the same application for different platforms.

Computers connected to the Internet run on different operating systems and hardware platforms. The applications running on these computers can be Web-based or Internet-based. Internet applications are distributed, which means two or more applications running on different computers communicate with each other by exchanging messages and data.

You use Java programming language to develop an Internet-based application that can be accessed by programmers working on various types of computers.

In addition, you can download a file or an executable program on a computer connected to the Internet. Any program downloaded through the Internet can perform some malicious task on the local computer if the local computer does not implement security checks. Java provides a solution to all these problems.