Java

Java Overview

Java is a general purpose, staticly typed, object oriented programming language that was founded in June 1991. The project was initiated by three developers - James Gosling, Mike Sheridan, and Patrick Naughton, but was officially released by Sun Microsystems in 1995.

Java’s tagline is “Write once, run anywhere”, and the language was founded on 5 principles

1. It must be “simple, object-oriented, and familiar”.
2. It must be “robust and secure”.
3. It must be “architecture-neutral and portable”.
4. It must execute with “high performance”.
5. It must be “interpreted, threaded, and dynamic”.

How Java Runs

All java code is compiled down into java byte code which is then run on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). This ensures that java programs can be run on virtually any combination of hardware and operating system.

Java uses an automatic garbage collector to manage memory, and the syntax of java is largly influenced by c & c++.

Java is perhaps best known for being the language in which android apps are written, and also seves as the basis for several popular frameworks including Spring and Hibernate. Java is also known for having an extensive ecosystem, with libraries and API’s to do just about anything.

Choosing an IDE

Many developers choose to write java using a specilized integrated development enviornment. Three of the most popular are Eclipse, NetBeans and IntelliJ.