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Introduction

The Java® programming language is a general-purpose, concurrent, class-based, object-oriented language. It is designed to be simple enough that many programmers can achieve fluency in the language. It was developed initially as a programming language for consumer-electronics products; however, its later versions address to Enterprise computing and mobile applications.

Java-introduction

History of Java

Java is one of the most popular programming languages used by software developers all over the world. It was developed in the early 1990s by James Gosling as an object-oriented programming language. The team initiated this project to develop a language for digital devices such as set-top boxes, television, etc. James Gosling and his team called their project Greentalk and its file extension was .gt and later became to known as “OAK”.

 

Why “Oak”?

The name Oak was used by Gosling after an oak tree that remained outside his office. Also, Oak is an image of solidarity and picked as a national tree of numerous nations like the U.S.A., France, Germany, Romania, etc. But they had to later rename it as JAVA as it was already a trademark by Oak Technologies.

 

The name “Java”

Java name was decided after much discussion since it was so unique. The name Java originates from a sort of espresso bean, Java. Gosling came up with this name while having a coffee near his office. Java was created on the principles like Robust, Portable, Platform Independent, High Performance, Multithread, etc. and was called one of the Ten Best Products of 1995 by the TIME MAGAZINE.

The first public implementation was Java 1.0 in 1995. It made the promise of “Write Once, Run Anywhere”, with free runtimes on popular platforms. It was fairly secure and its security was configurable, allowing for network and file access to be limited. Over the years, the language has been the foundation of millions of applications across many platforms such as Windows, Macintosh, UNIX, Android-based handheld devices, Embedded Systems, and corporate solutions. Java operates on more than 3 billion smartphones, according to Oracle (which acquired Sun Microsystems in 2010)

 

What is Java?

Java is an object-oriented, cross-platform programming language introduced in 1995 by Sun Microsystems. Today, Java helps run many applications, including Sports, Social Media, Audio, Video, etc.
The language itself borrows much syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities. Java is only distantly related to JavaScript, though they have similar names and share a C-like syntax. Today, the main use of Java is enterprise computing and mobile applications mainly for the Android platform. For the future, the use of the environment is growing in embedded systems as the Internet of things (IoT) comes more and more into picture.

 

Philosophy of Java

The development of the Java language had five primary objectives:

1. The object-oriented approach should be employed.
2. It should allow multiple operating systems to run the same program.
3. It should have built-in computer network support.
4. It should be configured to execute code from distant sources safely.
5. By selecting which parts of the other object-oriented languages are considered acceptable. It should be simple to use.

Java programmers often consider it appropriate to use extensions like CORBA, Internet Communications Engine, or OSGi to achieve networking support and remote code execution goals.

 

Object Orientation

The first element, object-oriented (OO), applies to a programming and design process. While several OO meanings are possible, one critical distinguishing principle is the design of the program to combine different data types, which it manipulates with their respective operations. Data and code are then combined into entities known as objects.

An entity can be considered as a part (code) and the state of self-contained conduct (data). The idea is to separate items that change from things that remain the same; a change in any data structure also means that the code that runs on that data or vice versa is modified accordingly. This division into compatible objects offers a more reliable basis for the design of a software system. The aim is to promote the management of large software projects, increase quality, and reduce the number of failed projects.

Another primary objective of OO is to create more common artifacts so that software between projects can be more reusable. For example, a generic customer object should have substantially the same basic set of behaviors, significantly when these projects overlap on a certain fundamental level, as they often do within larger organizations.

Hopefully, in that sense, software objects can be treated more as plug-in components so that the software industry can primarily build projects based on current, well-tested parts, thus reducing development time significantly. Software reusability has obtained mixed functional outcomes with two primary difficulties: the conception and communication approach of genuinely generic objects is poorly understood.

 

Platform Independence

The second feature, platform independence, means that Java written programs have to run on different hardware equally. one should be capable of writing once and execute the program anywhere. Most Java compilers accomplish this task by compiling Java halfway to bytecode code, specifically bytecode Java, simplified Java platform-specific machine instructions.

The code then runs on a virtual machine that interprets and executes generic Java byte code in native code on the host hardware. Also, standardized libraries are available to allow unified access to host machine features such as graphics, threading, and networking, to name a few.

Notice that, while the compilation stage is precise, somewhere the Java bytecode is interpreted or converted by the JIT compiler into native machine instructions. Java compilers are also implemented to compile the native object code, such as GCJ, for removing the intermediate bytecode level. Still, only a single architecture can run the performance of these compilers.

Sun’s Java license demands compatible all implementations. It led to a legal dispute with Microsoft after Sun argued that RMI and JNI interfaces did not accept the Microsoft implementation and introduced platform-specific features. Microsoft will no longer be shipping Java with Windows, and Internet Explorer will no longer support Java applets without a third-party plugin in recent versions of Windows.

However, for those and other Windows versions, Sun and others made Java runtime systems available free of charge. The first language implementations used an encoded virtual machine for portability. These innovations created programs that performed slightly slower than those compiled to native executables, such as C or C++, so that language was reputedly poorly. More recent JVM deployments generate programs with multiple techniques that operate much faster than before.

The first technique is to compile native code directly into a more conventional compiler, which totally skips bytecodes. This results in good results, but at the cost of portability. The Java bytecodes are converted into native code as a different technique known as a just-in-time compilation (JIT) when the program is running.

 

Automatic Garbage Collection

The concept behind Java’s automated memory management model is to save programmers the stress of manual memory management. In specific languages, the programmer allocates memory to build any object stored at the heap and then manages the memory manually to remove those objects. A memory leak can occur when a programmer forgets to relocate memory and does not type code promptly: it consumes a potentially large quantity of memory. Furthermore, the program can become unstable and collapse when a memory region is spread two times. Finally, there is some overhead and sophistication of the user code to track and finalize allocations in non-waste collected environments.

Automatic garbage collection avoids this possible issue in Java. When objects are created, the programmer decides, and Java is responsible for managing the object lifecycle. Holding a reference, the program or other objects may mention an object (which, from a low-level point of view, is its address on the heap). The Java garbage collector automatically deletes a non-reachable object if no reference to an object remains, freeing memory and avoiding memory leakage. There can also be memory leaks if a programmers code includes a reference to an item no longer needed in other words, it may still occur at a higher conceptual level.

 

Importance of Java

Currently, Java is the world’s top five most frequently used programming languages, according to Statista. Some developers tend to use Java for the design of GUI applications, while others use Java to build a range of web applications. Java is also widely used in manufacturing mobile and android games, the most extensively-installed mobile platform.

Here are some of the reasons why Java is and will remain important in the long run.

 

Mature and Keeps Evolving

Java is a sophisticated and stable language for programming. However, Oracle Corporation updates the programming language regularly with the help of a dynamic community. Each new Java version has many new features and performance improvements.

 

Platform Independent

Programmers need to write applications with the use of several devices and platforms. Therefore, they are looking for a programming language that lets them write the application code once and use the application code across multiple platforms without any additional effort. The programmers can simply compile the Java code once and deploy it across varied platforms without recompiling the code. The bytecode enables the application code deployed by programmers on any Java supporting platform. They can also quickly transport the app from one platform to the next without constantly compiling the code.

 

Supports Common Programming Paradigms

Java’s syntax rules are similar to the C and C++ syntax. Thus it is easier for beginners to learn and use Java in less time. Simultaneously, Java is a rival class-based programming language that is object-oriented. Because Java embraces popular object-oriented programming principles such as heritage, polymorphism, abstraction, and enclosure, the applications are made modular, extensible, and scalable more readily accessible by programmers. The developers can also benefit from such Java libraries to more effectively incorporate object-oriented design concepts.

 

Google Recommends for Android App Development

There is a huge installation base for development of Mobile apps which cannot be overlooked by any developer. The programmers can write Android apps in C, C++, and Java. But Google suggests the developers of mobile apps write Android apps in Java only. By typing it in Java, developers can further improve the performance and compatibility of the Android apps. Developers also have the option to write sturdy Android apps in Java in a shorter time, using various tools and libraries.

 

Rich set of APIs

Java dominates other languages in the programming interfaces rich application programming interfaces (APIs) category. The programmers have the option of creating popular development projects by using a variety of Java APIs without adding any extra code. Some of these APIs are shared by significant corporations, and others are downloaded by community members. Developers can use APIs to link databases, inputs and outputs, networks, utilities, protection, and XML parsing according to their needs. They can combine these APIs with other Java Open Source libraries to improve the applications functionality and efficiency without adding time and effort.


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