What is Java?

Details: Written by Nam Ha Minh; Last Updated on 26 August 2019 | Print Email

Is Java an island of Indonesia archipelago? Yes, that's correct.

However, Java is very well known as a software platform, a computer programming language, and a fast growing and widely used technology worldwide.

The Java programming language was invented by James Gosling in 1995 and became a core component of the Java platform which is developed by Sun Microsystems Inc. (and now by Oracle Inc.). Today, Java is one of the most popular computer programming languages and computing platforms. Java is everywhere: on personal computers, enterprise servers, super computers, mobile phones, embedded devices... and even on Mars exploring robots.

What Java can do:

Well, Java can do everything you can imagine: allows playing games on mobile phones, chatting via webcam, rendering 3D models, processing banking transactions, controlling robots... and much more, here just to name a few.

What makes Java so popular:

Java has a number of advantages which make it a widespreading technology:

- Platform independent: A Java program can run on any platform including Windows, Linux, Mac, Solaris, ... with a Java Virtual Machine installed on the target operating system. Developers write code once and the program can run anywhere, thus the very well know slogan "Write once, run anywhere".
- Powerful language: The Java programming language is strong typed, has clear syntax and addresses some limitations of C/C++... that makes it a easy to learn language for programmers. There are thousands of libraries written in Java for almost any field.
- Secure: Java has a built-in strong security manager from ground-up that prevents malicious code and viruses.
- High performance: with the JVM has been improved over the years, Java applications are fast.
- Networking: with built-in support for networking, developers can write internet-based and networked applications easily.

The big family of Java technologies:

Java is a really big technology which spreads across various platforms and devices. Instead of having a huge package for all platforms, the technology is devided into specific editions as following:

- Java SE (Standard Edition): for desktop-based applications.
- Java EE (Enterprise Edition): for enterprise web-based applications.
- Java ME (Micro Edition): for mobile-based applications.
- Java FX: for Rich Internet Applications (RIAs)
- Java SE for Embedded Devices.

The Java logo:

The Java technology is very well known with its logo: a cup of hot coffee.

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