Java Introduction

Last Updated: 15 September, 2023

What is Java Programming Language?

Java is a high-level, secure, and object-oriented programming (OOP) language with many built-in features such as distributedness, robustness, architecture neutrality, portability, high performance, multithreading, and many more.

Sun Microsystems created Java in 1991 and released the first public implementation as Java 1.0 in 1996.

Java supports WORA (Write Once, Run Anywhere), which means we can write and compile Java applications on one platform and run them on the same or different platforms (platform means any machine, hardware configuration, or operating system). Java applications are typically compiled into bytecode that can run on any Java virtual machine (JVM), regardless of the underlying computer architecture.

Java syntax and concepts are easy and simple to learn and understand, which makes Java a simple programming language. Java's syntax is similar to other programming languages like C and C++. The code in Java is always written in the form of classes and objects.

Java is not 100% object-oriented programming (OOP) because it supports primitive data types like int, float, char, etc.

Java is used as a server-side language for back-end development, Android development, desktop computing, mobile computing, games, and numerical computing.

Currently, 3 billion devices are running on the Java platform.

History of Java

James Gosling, Patrick Naughton, Chris Warth, Ed Frank, and Mike Sheridan created Java at Sun Microsystems, Inc. in 1991. Later, on Oracle Corporation's acquisition of Sun Microsystems in 2009-10.

James Gosling is known as the Father of Java.

Java was originally designed for interactive television, but it was too advanced for the digital cable television industry at the time. The language was initially called Oak. Later, the project went by the name "Green" and was finally renamed "Java" in 1995.

Sun Microsystems released the first public implementation of Java 1.0 in 1996. It took 18 months to develop the first working version. It promised Write Once, Run Anywhere (WORA) functionality.

The Java language was designed with object-oriented programming (OOP) in mind, as well as being simple, robust, secure, architecture-neutral, high-performance, portable, platform-independent, interpreted, threaded, and dynamic.

Java Platform Editions

Sun has defined and supports four editions of Java targeting different application environments and has segmented many of its APIs so that they belong to one of the platforms. The platforms are:

Java SE (Java Standard Edition - J2SE)

The Java SE API provides the core functionality of Java. It defines everything from the basic types and objects of Java to high-level classes that are used for networking, security, database access, graphical user interface (GUI) development, and XML parsing. In addition to the core API, the Java SE platform consists of a virtual machine, development tools, deployment technologies, and other class libraries and toolkits commonly used in Java technology applications.

Java EE (Java Enterprise Edition - J2EE)

Like Java SE, it is also a Java platform built on top of the Java SE platform for the development of web-based applications that run on application servers and web servers. The Java EE platform provides different APIs and a run-time environment for the development of large-scale, scalable, reliable, multi-tiered, and secure network applications. Java EE technologies include Java Servlet, JSP, JSF, and Oracle ADF.

Java ME (Java Micro Edition - J2ME)

Java ME is a Java platform for applications that run on small-scale devices like cell phones. Java ME is used to develop different cell phone applications and games. Whatsapp, "a famous chat application," is also developed with Java ME. Applications developed with Java ME can run on different mobile phone operating systems like Nokia Symbian, Android, iPhone, Windows Phone, etc. The Java ME The API is a subset of the Java SE API, along with special class libraries useful for small device application development. Java ME applications are often clients of Java EE platform services.

Java Card

The Java Card Edition is used for building smart cards using the Java programming language.

Uses of Java Programming Language

Java is a very popular and widely used programming language. According to Oracle, more than 3 billion devices run Java. There is a list of Java-type applications:

• Web Applications
• Enterprise Applications
• Operating System
• Mobile Applications
• Gaming Applications
• Scientific Applications
• Smart Card
• Cloud Computing
• Embedded System
• Programming language development, etc.

Java Version History

Java was developed by Sun Microsystems in 1991. Sun Microsystems released the first public implementation as Java 1.0 in 1996.

Version	Release Date	Features released with Version
JDK Beta	1995	It was the 1st version, but it had unstable APIs. It was not released to the public.
JDK 1.0	23 Jan, 1996	It was the first stable version made available to the general public.
JDK 1.1	19 Feb, 1997	Added many new library elements Inner class JavaBeans JDBC RMI JIT (Just In time) compiler, etc.
J2SE 1.2	8 Dec, 1998	strictfp keyword Swing Collection Framework etc.
J2SE 1.3	8 May, 2000	HotSpot JVM JNDI JPDA etc.
J2SE 1.4	6 Feb, 2002	Assertions RegEx Improvements Image IO API XML Parsers XSLT Processors Preferences API (java.util.prefs) etc.
J2SE 5.0	30 Sep, 2004	Generics Annotation Autoboxing and Auto-unboxing Enumeration for-each Loop Varargs (variable-length argument) Static import Formatted I/O Concurrency utilities etc.
Java SE 6	11 Dec, 2006	JDBC 4.0 support JAXB version 2.0 Many GUI improvements Pluggable Annotations etc.
Java SE 7	28 July, 2011	Strings in switch statements Auto resource management in try-statement Java NIO Package Catching multiple excetions in a single catch block etc.
Java SE 8 (LTS)	18 March, 2014	Lambda expressions Stream API New Data Time API forEach() method default and static method in interfaces Functional Interface etc.
Java SE 9	21 Sep, 2017	Reactive Streams Module System under Project Jigsaw HTTP 2 Client JShell etc.
Java SE 10	20 March, 2018	Local-Variable Type Inference Thread-Local Handshakes Garbage-Collector Interface etc.
Java SE 11 (LTS)	25 Sep, 2018	Nest-Based Access Control Local-Variable Syntax for Lambda Parameters Dynamic Class-File Constants etc.
Java SE 12	19 March, 2019	JVM Constants API Added Microbenchmark Suite One AArch64 Port Default CDS Archives Shenandoah Garbage Collector etc. Teeing Collectors New methods in String class Switch Expressions etc.
Java SE 13	17 Sep, 2019	DOM and SAX Factories with Namespace Support Text Blocks Unicode 12.1 support Switch Expressions etc.
Java SE 14	17 March 2020	Helpful NullPointerExceptions Non-Volatile Mapped Byte Buffers Remove the Pack200 Tools and API Switch Expressions (Standard) etc.
Java SE 15	15 Sep, 2020	Hidden Classes Text Blocks Disable and Deprecate Biased Locking etc.
Java SE 16	16 March, 2021	Enable C++14 Language Features Migrate from Mercurial to Git Elastic Metaspace Packaging Tool etc.
Java SE 17 (LTS)	14 Sep, 2021	Sealed Classes Deprecate the Applet API for Removal Foreign Function & Memory API (Incubator) etc.
Java SE 18	March 2022
LTS - Long Term Support