Java was developed by a team led by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems. Sun Microsystems was purchased by Oracle in 2010. Originally called Oak, Java was designed in 1991 for use in embedded chips in consumer electronic appliances.
In 1995, renamed Java, it was redesigned for developing Web applications. For the history of Java, see www.java.com/en/javahistory/index.jsp.
Java has become enormously popular. Its rapid rise and wide acceptance can be traced to its design characteristics, particularly its promise that you can write a program once and run it anywhere. As stated by its designer, Java is simple, object-oriented, distributed, interpreted, robust, secure, architecture-neutral, portable, high-performance, multithreaded, and dynamic.
Java is a full-featured, general-purpose programming language that can be used to develop robust mission-critical applications. Today, it is employed not only for Web programming but also for developing standalone applications across platforms on servers, desktop computers, and mobile devices. It was used to develop the code to communicate with and control the robotic rover on Mars. Many companies that once considered Java to be more hype than substance are now using it to create distributed applications accessed by customers and partners across the Internet.
Java is now very popular for developing applications on Web servers. These applications process data, perform computations, and generate dynamic Web pages. Many commercial Websites are developed using Java on the backend.
Java is a full-fledged and powerful language that can be used in many ways. It comes in three editions:
- Java Standard Edition (Java SE) to develop client-side applications. The applications can run standalone or as applets running from a Web browser.
- Java Enterprise Edition (Java EE) to develop server-side applications, such as Java
servlets, JavaServer Pages (JSP), and JavaServer Faces (JSF). - Java Micro Edition (Java ME) to develop applications for mobile devices, such as
cell phones.
What will you need if you want to develop a program with Java?
To be able to program with java you will need JDK and IDE
- JDK (Java Development Toolkit) consists of a set of separate programs, each invoked from a command line, for developing and testing Java programs. Download JDK at: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index-jsp-138363.html
- IDE (Integrated Development Environment) is software that provides an integrated development environment (IDE) for developing Java programs quickly. Editing, compiling, building, debugging, and online help are integrated into one graphical user interface. You simply enter source code in one window or open an existing file in a window, and then click a button or menu item or press a function key to compile and run the program. Some of the popular IDE used for developing Java applications: Netbeans, Eclipse, IntelliJ IDEA
To save your time, instead of download JDK and IDE you can also download Netbeans included JDK at: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index-jsp-138363.html and select Netbeans with JDK
