In the computing industry, Java® is an essential skill. Java® is a programming language used to create interactive content for web pages, as well as to develop stand-alone programming and server-side applications. It is often used in conjunction with extensions such as OSGi or CORBA.
Java® was developed by Sun Microsystems in the early 1990s. It began as a project called “Oak” that was led by James Gosling. Its original purpose was to develop applets—small programs that run in your web browser. However, it was later discovered that Java® was also well suited to the creation of e-commerce applications.
In 1998, the Java® Community Process was established to allow interested professionals to be involved in the future development of this unique programming language. Today, Sun Microsystems provides a GNU General Public License for its Java® virtual machine and compiler. Unfortunately, the library required to run Java® programs is not yet available as free software.
Java® has five key goals: improve the ease of use by combining the best features of other popular programming languages, use object-oriented programming methodology to promote greater flexibility in software applications, contain built-in support for using computer networks, offer a secure way to execute code from a remote source, and allow the same program to run on multiple operating systems.
Java® is very popular because its automatic memory management model allows programmers to avoid the time-consuming task of manual memory management by implementing a process known as automatic garbage collection. However, some people feel that Java® is slower and consumes significantly more memory than C++ or other natively compiled languages. Regardless, a thorough understanding of Java® is necessary for anyone who hopes to work in the computer programming industry.
Learning Java® can best be compared to learning the rules of grammar for a foreign language, but once you’ve developed a good understanding of Java® you should find it relatively easy to master other common programming languages. There are many different resources available for mastering the basics of Java®. If you’re patient and persistent, you can teach yourself Java® using the free tutorials and online e-courses available throughout the web. There are also Java® programming classes available at most local community colleges.
Java® is sometimes confused with JavaScript®, a scripting language that shares a similar-sounding name but is completely unrelated. Most of the syntax used in Java® comes from C and C++, but the object model is simpler and there are fewer low-level facilities to learn.
