Aviva Directory » Computers & Internet » Programming » Java

Developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems, and released in 1995, Java is a general-purpose programming language. Its compiled code can be run on any platform that supports Java, which leads to its slogan, "write once, run anywhere."

Originally proprietary, in 2007, Sun relicensed most of its Java technologies under the GNU General Public License. Meanwhile, alternative implementations have been developed, such as the GNU Compiler for Java, GNU Classpath, and IcedTea, a bytecode compiler, standard libraries, and browser plugin, respectively. Another compiler for Java is the Open Java Development Kit (OpenJDK), developed by Oracle and licensed under the GNU General Public License. Although Oracle no longer supports OpenJDK, development has been continued by the JDK Project.

Now owned by Oracle, Sun Microsystems has continued to develop and upgrade the Java programming language.

Sun currently supports four editions of Java, which target different environments. These are Java Card for smart-cards, Java Platform, Micro Edition for environments with limited resources, Java Platform, Standard Edition for workstation environments, and Java Platform, Enterprise Edition for large distributed enterprises or Internet environments.

Java is both a platform and a programming language. Its platform is the Java runtime environment, on which programs can run. As a language, it is a high-level, robust, object-oriented language, although it is not a pure object-oriented language, as it contains primitive types.

Java is generally considered to be one of the easier programming languages to learn. In order to use the language, a Java compiler and a text editor are required. Although a basic text editor will work, an advanced editor, like NetBeans or Eclipse, might make the work easier.

Both NetBeans and Eclipse are integrated development environments (IDEs) for Java, allowing the development of applications from a set of modular components known as modules.

Topics related to any of the versions or implementations of Java are appropriate for this category, as are any editors designed specifically for Java programming, tutorials, and other Java-related content.

 

 

Recommended Resources


Search for Java on Google or Bing