What is Java?

Details: Written by Nam Ha Minh; Last Updated on 23 September 2024 | 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.

If you're absolutely new to Java, read this article till the end to get the very fundamentals about the Java progrograming languague, Java platform and Java ecosystem.

1. What is Java?

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 can be found everywhere: on personal computers, enterprise servers, super computers, mobile phones, embedded devices... and even on Mars exploring robots.

According to the TIOBE programming language index, Java is consistently ranked as one of the most popular programming languages.

2. What Java can do:

Well, Java can do almost 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. Java is mostly used in enterprise softweare development (middleware) and Android apps (mobile phone applications). There are millions of developers who use Java to create such a wide range of applications running on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), which is installed in billions of devices.

3. What makes Java so popular:

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

- Platform independence: 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 programming 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.

In addtion, Java has a strong and vibrant community, which means you can learn Java and get support easily.

4. 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 creating desktop-based applications. Read this article to learn more about Java SE.
- Java EE (Enterprise Edition): for developing enterprise web-based applications. You can learn more about Java EE here.
- Java ME (Micro Edition): for developing mobile-based applications.
- Java FX: for creating 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.

java logo

About the Author:

Nam Ha Minh is certified Java programmer (SCJP and SCWCD). He began programming with Java back in the days of Java 1.4 and has been passionate about it ever since. You can connect with him on Facebook and watch his Java videos on YouTube.