he Java language is a computer programming language oriented object created byJames Gosling and Patrick Naughton, employees of Sun Microsystems, with the support of Bill Joy (co-founder of Sun Microsystems in 1982), officially presented on May 23, 1995 at the SunWorld.
The Sun company was then bought in 2009 by the company Oracle that holds andmaintains now Java.
The particularity and the central objective of Java is that programs written in this language must be very easily portable on several operating systems such as UNIX, Windows, Mac OS, or GNU/Linux, with little or no modifications. To do this, various associated platforms and frameworks are intended to guide, otherwise ensure the portability of applications developed in Java.
Contents [Hide]
1 Overview
2 history
2.1 origin of language
2.2 Java meets the Internet
Origin of the name Java 2.2.1
2.2.2 public launch of Java
2.3 advent of Java 2
2.4 recent history
2.4.1 use Web
2.4.1.1 client-side
2.4.1.2 server-side
2.4.2 use on workstation
2.4.3 use with mobile
2.4.4 OS Windows, Mac OS X and GNU/Linux
2.4.5 passage under open-source license
2.4.6 acquisition by Oracle
2.5 version history
2.5.1 version numbering
2.5.2 successive versions
2.5.3 content and evolutions
3 philosophy
3.1 language guided object and familiar
3.2 mechanism of vacuuming
3.3 independence towards the platform
3.3.1 types of compilations
3.3.2 review of Java portability
3.4 secure execution of remote code
4 elements of the language
4.1 reserved words, primitive and literals
4.2 class, attributes, methods
4.2.1 notion of class
4.2.2 notion of attribute
4.2.3 notion of method
4.3 types
4.4 collections of objects
4.4.1 fixed size collections
4.4.2 collections of variable size
4.5 control structures
4.5.1 loops
4.5.2 conditional structures
4.5.3 unconditional connections
4.5.4 exception handling
4.5.5 generic types
4.5.6 the source code encoding
4.6 comparison operator
5 development environments
5.1 JavaStyle
5.2 Frameworks and API
5.3 development tools
5.3.1 automation
6 see also
6.1 bibliography
6.2 related articles
6.3 external links
6.4 notes and references
Overview [edit: modify the code]
The Java language has many of the syntax of the C++ language, widely used by it professionals. However, Java was purified concepts the most subtle of the C++ and at the same time the most confusing, such as pointers and references, or multiple inheritance bypassed by the implementation of the interfaces. Designers have favouredthe object-oriented approach so that in Java, everything is object with the exception of primitive types (integers, floating-point numbers, etc.).
Java allows to develop client-server applications. Client-side applets are originally from the notoriety of the language. It's especially side server that Java has emerged in the middle of the business through servlets, during server applets, and more recently the JSP (JavaServer Pages) which can substitute for PHP, ASP and ASP.NET.
Java gave birth to a (JavaOS) operating system, to environments of development (eclipse/JDK), virtual machines (MSJVM (en), JRE) application platform (JVM), a versionfor mobile/embedded devices (J2ME), a library of design of GUI (AWT/Swing), heavy applications (Jude, Oracle SQL Worksheet, etc.), web technologies (servlets, applets)and a variation for the enterprise (J2EE). The portability of Java bytecode is handledby the Java virtual machine, and possibly by standard libraries included in a JRE. Thisvirtual machine can interpret the bytecode or compiling it on the fly into machine language. Portability is dependent on the quality of porting the JVM on each OS.
The Java language is the result of a project of Sun Microsystems dating back to 1990: engineer Patrick Naughton was not satisfied by the C++ language used at Sun, itsprogramming interfaces in C language, as well as related tools. While he was considering a migration to NeXT, offered to work on new technology and this is how the project Stealth (stealth) was born.
The Stealth project was quickly renamed the Green Project with the arrival of JamesGosling and Mike Sheridan. Together, helped by other engineers, they began to work in an office of the Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park California. They tried to develop atechnology for the development of a new generation applications, offering the prospect of unique opportunities at Sun.
The team had initially planned to use the C++ language, but abandoned it for different reasons. First of all, they developed on a system with limited resources and felt that the use of C++ required a too important investment and that this complexity was a source of error for developers. The lack of vacuuming implied that the memorymanagement should be set manually, a challenge but also a source of errors.
The team was also dissatisfied with the shortcomings of the C++ language to the level of safety of the programming distributed, multi-threading. In addition, they wanted a platform that can be worn on any type of devices or platforms.
Bill Joy had envisioned a new language combining the best of the Mesa programming language (en) and the C language. In an article called more far away (Further), heproposed to Sun that its engineers are developing an object oriented environmentbased on the C++ language. Initially, Gosling was considering to change and improve the C++ language, which he called C++ ++-, but the idea was soon abandoned in favour of developing a new programming language which they called Oak (oak) inreference, according to the legend, a tree planted in front of the window of their office [ref. desired].
The team worked hard [ref. desired] and, in the summer 1992, they were able to doa demonstration consisting of a platform including the Green [desired ref.], the Oaklanguage operating system (1992), libraries and equipment. Their first achievement,presented September 3, 1992, was the construction of a PDA called Star7 having a graphical interface and a smart agent called Duke to assist the user.
In November of the same year, the Green Project was abandoned to become FirstPerson, Inc., owned in whole by Sun Microsystems, and the team was relocated to PaloAlto. The FirstPerson team was interested in the construction of highly interactive tools and when Time Warner published a tender for a multifunction box, FirstPerson changed his goal to provide such a platform.
However, the cable television industry found that it offered too many possibilities tothe user and FirstPerson lost the market to the benefit of Silicon Graphics. Unable to interest the audiovisual industry, the company was reinstated within Sun.
Java meets the Internet [edit: modify the code]
From June to July 1994, after three days of brainstorming with John Gage, James Gosling, Joy, Naughton, Wayne Rosing, and Eric Schmidt, the team gave the platform on the web. They thought that with the advent of the Mosaic browser, the Internet was the place where was going to develop the same kind of interactive tool than theyhad envisioned for cable industry. As a prototype, Naughton developed a small browser, WebRunner which later became HotJava.
The same year, the language was renamed Java after that it was discovered that theOak name was already used by a manufacturer of video card.
Origin of the name Java [edit: modify the code]
The name 'Java' is not an acronym, it was chosen during a brainstorming4 in place of the original name "Oak", due to a conflict with an existing trademark, because thecoffee ("java" in American slang) 5 is the favorite drink of many programmeurs6. The logo chosen by Sun is a cup of steaming coffee.
Public launch of Java [edit: modify the code]
In October 1994, HotJava and the Java platform were presented to Sun Executives. Java 1.0 was released for download in 1994, but the first public version of the HotJava Browser arrived on May 23, 1995 at the SunWorld7 conference.
The announcement was made by John Gage, the Scientific Director of Sun Microsystems. His announcement was accompanied by announced surprise Marc Andressen,vice-president of the Executive of Netscape Netscape to include Java support in itsbrowsers. On 9 January 1996, the Javasoft group was formed by Sun Microsystemsp
