Introduction & History of Java

Introduction

• Java is the most popular programming language in the world today.
• Java offers three flavors of programming –  Java application, Java applets & Servlets. Java servlets are similar to applets programs except they execute on servers side. Servlets are Java programs answer to traditional CGI programming. Servlets are programs that run on a Web server and build Web pages.
• Java can be used to create complete applications that may run on a single computer or be distributed among servers and clients in a network.
• Java is an extremely common programming language, used nearly everywhere – Android apps, web applications, network applications, distributed applications, server applications, standalone applications, game consoles, even supercomputers. It is known for its simplicity, and its amazing portability.
• The Java Development Kit (JDK) is a software development environment used for developing Java applications and applets. It includes the Java Runtime Environment (JRE), an interpreter/loader (Java), a compiler (javac), an archiver (jar), a documentation generator (Javadoc) and other tools needed in Java development.There is no possibility of running a Java program without JDK.
• The Java Runtime Environment (JRE) is a set of software tools for development of Java applications. It combines the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), platform core classes and supporting libraries. JRE is part of the Java Development Kit (JDK), but can be downloaded separately.
• Java application programming interface (API) is a list of all classes that are part of the Java development kit (JDK). It includes all Java packages, classes, and interfaces, along with their methods, fields, and constructors. These prewritten classes provide a tremendous amount of functionality to a programmer.
• The Java IDE (Integrated Development Environment) is an all-in-one software environment which not only lets to edit and compile our code, but also  manages all the related resources, provides deployment and version controlling options, and lets to use advanced debugging features for our entire project. Examples of some important IDEs are – NetBeans Ide, IntelliJ Idea, Eclipse, Jdeveloper, Dr. Java, BlueJ, JCreator, JGrasp, Greenfoot, Codenvy etc.
• Google uses the Java programming language to build and develop the Google Docs applications.  

History

• Java was originally developed by a team of computer professionals under the guidance of James A.Gosling (from Canada) at Sun Micro System Inc. , America in 1991.
• Initially James Gosling in June 1991 called it “oak” after seeing an oak tree from their window, but after some weeks they were discussing another name and were sipping Java coffee (a popular brand of coffee from Indonesia’s Java island), so one of them suggested the name “Java”.

Java Environment