Table of Contents
Java was developed by Sun Micro-system in 1991 for a general-purpose, object-oriented programming language. The software for consumer electronic devices, such as TVs, VCRs, toasters, and other electronic machinery was initially called “Oak” by James Gosling, one of the inventors of language. The goal was to make language easy, portable, and very reliable for the development team.
- Sun Micro-systems created Java in 1995 as an object-oriented programming language.
- The year was 1991. The first version of Oak took nearly 18 months to develop. Oak was renamed Java in 1995. Real-world programming was used to create, test, and refine Java. Java introduced an exciting new type of program known as an applet.
- The primary motivation for developing Java was the desire for a platform-independent language. Care C++ is responsible for many of Java’s characteristics.
- Java, like ALGOL, is a strongly typed, block-structured, imperative programming language. Java syntax is very similar to C++ syntax.
- Java is a language that was created to meet the needs and experiences of the people who created it. It is logically consistent and cohesive.
- A Java applet is a type of application that is designed to be sent over the Internet and executed by a Java-compatible Web browser.
- The applet functions similarly to an image, sound file, or video clip that can be dynamically downloaded across the network.
- To prevent viruses and malicious programs, Java acts as a firewall between a networked application and your computer.
- Java is simple to learn and use for experienced programmers who are familiar with Object-Oriented Programming languages such as C++.
- Java is robust in the sense that it is a strictly typed language that checks code at both compile and runs time.
- Java code runs consistently in a wide range of systems. Java provides exception handling as well as garbage collection. Java beans are java-scripted software components. Java and C# have a very similar look and feel.
- Java supports the TCP/IP protocol and is thus appropriate for the Internet’s distributed environment.
- The intra-address-space features have been updated in a package known as Remote Method Invocation (RMI), which provides an unprecedented level of abstraction to client/server programming.
- The serialization facility allows you to save and restore an object’s state. Java includes a number of security features such as digital signatures, message digits, access control lists, and key generation.
- Java includes built-in support for 16-byte character streams that contain Unicode characters. Swing, a set of user interface components written entirely in Java, is supported by the language.
- Java supports collections, which are groups of collections such as a dynamic array, liked list, hash table, and so on.
Features of Java Programming
The inventors of Java wanted to design a language which could offer solutions to some of the problem encountered in modern programming. They wanted the language to be not only reliable, portable, and distributed but also simple, compact, and interactive. Sun Micro-systems defines Java as having the below characteristics.:
- Compiled and Interpreted
- Platform-Independent and Portable
- Robust and secure
- Familiar, simple, and small
- Multithreaded and Interactive
- High Performance
- Ease of Development
- Dynamic and Extensible
Compiled and Interpreted
Most computer languages are generally are either compiled or interpreted. Java combines both these approaches thus making Java a two-stage programming language system. In most circumstances, a computer language is either compiled or interpreted. Because it integrates both of these notions, Java is a two-stage system and thus is characterized as both a compiled and an interpreted language. To begin, the Java compiler converts source code to byte-code instructions. A Java interpreter generates machine code that may be directly executed by the machine in the second stage that is running the Java application because byte-codes are not machine instructions.
Platform-Independent and Portable
Java’s most significant benefit over other languages is its portability. Java programs can be easily moved from one machine to another at any time and from any location. If changes and upgrades are made in operating systems, processors, and system resources it will not force any changes in Java programs. This is why Java has grown in popularity as a programming language on the Internet, which connects a wide range of computers all over the world. We can download and run a Java applet from a remote computer on our local machine using the Internet. As a result, the user’s main system becomes an extension of the Internet, giving access to an almost endless number of applets and applications. This is why Java has grown in popularity as a programming language on the Internet, which connects a wide range of computers all over the world. Java ensures portability in two ways. For starters, the Java compiler provides byte-code instructions that can be run on any machine. Second, the machine has no bearing on the size of the primitive data types.
Java is a true object-oriented language. Almost everything in Java is an object. Code and data reside within objects and classes. Java has a vast number of classes organized into packages that we can use in our programs by inheriting from them. The object model in Java is simple to understand and adapt.
Robust and secure
Java is a robust language. There are numerous safeguards in place to ensure that the code is reliable. It has strict compile-time and run-time tests for data types. It is designed to be a garbage-collected language, which eliminates practically all memory management issues for the programmer. Exception handling is another feature of Java, which captures a series of errors and protects the system from crashing. Security becomes a big concern for a language that is used for Internet development. Thread of viruses and abuse of resources are everywhere. Java not only ensures that all memory access is verified, but it also assures that an applet is malware-free.
Java was developed as a distributed programming language for the development of networked applications. It is capable of sharing both data and programs. Java programs can open and access remote objects over the Internet in the same way that they can on local machines. This enables programmers from all over the world to collaborate and work on the same project.
Familiar, simple, and small
Java is a short and straightforward programming language. Many aspects of C and C++ that are superfluous or can lead to faulty code are absent from Java. Another noticeable quality of Java is its familiarity. It was modeled after the C and C++ languages to make it look familiar to existing programmers. Java uses many constructs of C and C++ and therefore, Java code “looks like a C++” code. Java lacks pointers, processor header files, goto instructions, and many other features.
Multi-threaded and Interactive
Multi-threaded means handling multiple tasks simultaneously. This eliminates the need to wait for the application to finish a one activity before moving on to the next. We can, for example, listen to an audio clip while exploring a website and simultaneously download an applet from a remote machine. This functionality significantly improves the interaction performance of graphical programs. For designing interactive systems that run smoothly, the Java runtime contains tools for multiprocess synchronization.
Java’s speed is excellent for an interpreted language due to the use of intermediate byte-code. According to Sun, Java’s speed is comparable to the native C/C++. The Java architecture aims to remove runtime overheads as well. The incorporation of multi-threading enhances the overall execution speed of Java programs.
Ease of Development
Java 2 Standard Edition support features, such as Generics, Enhanced for Loop, Auto-boxing or unboxing, Type-safe Enums, Varargs, Static import, and Annotation. By leaving the production of reusable code to the compiler, these capabilities reduce the programmer’s effort. The final source code is bug-free because the compiler makes fewer errors than programmers. As a result, each of the language features is designed to make Java program development easier.
Dynamic and Extensible
Java is a dynamic language. Java may dynamically link new class libraries, methods, and objects. Java may also utilize a query to figure out what kind of class it is, and then dynamically link or stop the application based on the response. Java programs support functions written in other programming languages such as C and C++. These functions are known as native methods. This feature allows programmers to take advantage of these language’s efficient functions. Native methods are dynamically linked at runtime.
Object-Oriented Programming in Java
If you’ve never written code before in an object-oriented programming language, you’ll need to learn a few fundamental concepts first. Followings will introduce you to objects, classes, inheritance, interfaces, and packages concepts related to the real world, while simultaneously providing an introduction to the syntax of the Java programming language.
What Is an Object?
An object is a software bundle of interconnected states and activities. In everyday life, software objects are routinely used to model real-world objects. This course explains how state and activity are represented within an object, introduces data encapsulation, and analyses the benefits of doing so while building software.
What Is a Class?
A class is a blueprint or prototype that is used to generate objects. This section specifies a class that represents a real-world object’s state and behavior. It focuses on the fundamentals to demonstrate how even a simple class can properly express state and behavior.
What Is Inheritance?
Inheritance is a strong and natural technique for organizing and arranging your software. This section explains how classes inherit state and behavior from their super-classes, as well as how to derive one class from another using the simple syntax of the Java programming language.
What Is an Interface?
An interface can be referred to as a contract between a class and the outside world. When a class implements an interface, it ensures that the functionality of the interface is implemented.
What Is a Package?
You can use Java’s huge library of pre-written classes in your apps. Packages are used to group these classes together. A package is a logically organized namespace of classes and interfaces. When you organize your code into packages, it’s easier to manage huge software projects.
The Java packages
A number of classes, interfaces, exceptions, and errors are defined in each package. Sub-packages can be created from packages. The java.lang package, for example, has a sub-package called java.lang.reflect. These are two entirely distinct packages. A class in a sub-package has no more access to a parent package class (or vice versa) than a class in an entirely another package.
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