Java Programming Language


 

Java Programming Language

This section gives you a complete description about java platform and jdk/jre's components with a wide variety of tutorials on java.

This section gives you a complete description about java platform and jdk/jre's components with a wide variety of tutorials on java.

Java Programming Language

Java is a programming language which was developed by James Gosling, Patrick Naughton, and Mike Sheridan in year 1995 at Sun Microsystems. The nucleus of the java platform is the Java programming language.

Java codes are compiled into byte code which can run on any computer through the JVM(Java Virtual Machine) irrespective of the architecture of the computer. This property give us the most powerful feature of java which is platform independence.

The Java2 version was released in December 1998-1999. The new added feature and configuration has the support for multiple platforms such as J2EE for aiming enterprise applications, J2ME for aiming mobile applications and of course for aiming core java J2SE is designed.

Sun introduces JRE(Java Runtime Environment) which is the part of the JDK but don't have complier or header files etc . This is also the difference between JDK & JRE.

The sun releases Java as open source software under the GNU General Public License (GPL) On November 13, 2006.

Java Platform

Java programming language is platform independent means it has to run on every operating system which have supporting machine architecture. This is due to the java byte code. Java compiles the language code into byte code which is an intermediary representation. The Java Virtual machine is capable of running this intermediate code without any hurdle. The JRE is specifically designed to support runtime through JVM.

Java Features

Given below the features of java :

  • Platform Independent
  • Object Oriented
  • Robust
  • Distributed
  • Portable
  • Dynamic
  • Secure
  • Multithreaded
  • Architecture Neutral

Components of JDK

The two principal products in the Java platform are: Java Development Kit (JDK) and Java Runtime Environment (JRE). Sun introduces JRE(Java Runtime Environment) which is the part of the JDK but don't have complier or header files etc . This is also the difference between JDK & JRE.

The main difference between JRE and JDK is the absence of tools and tools API such as basic tools like javac etc, security tool, RMI tool, Plug-in tool, deployment tool, web start tool etc. Except these tools JRE have all the feature and components of JDK. To support Runtime java environment and provide run time configuration, JRE is introduced by the Sun.

Given below the components of JDK :

Standard JDK Tools

Rich Internet Applications(RIA) Development and Deployment

User Interface Toolkits

Integration Libraries

Lang and Util Base Libraries

Other Base Packages

Java Virtual Machine Technology

Importance Of Java

Java version releases :

  Version     Year of release                             Description
JDK1.0        23-Jan-1996 JDK 1.0-The first release of java version. The first code name was Oak.
JDK1.1 19-Feb-1997 In this version the major inclusions are AWT, JDBC, RMI, Java beans etc.
J2SE 1.2 8-Dec-1998 The Third release was Java2 Standard Edition (J2SE), Its code name was Playground. The Major inclusions are Swing, strictfp, Java IDL, collection & JIT
J2SE 1.3 8-May-2000 Fourth release has code name Kestrel. The Key Modifications are Hotspot JVM,JNDI, JPDA, Java Sound etc
J2SE 1.4 6-Feb-2002 Fifth release has code name merlin. The major modifications are-assert Keyword, Regular Expression, Exception chaining, Image I/O API, Java Web Start etc.
J2SE 5.0 30-Sept-2004 The sixth release had code name Tiger. The Major inclusion was Generics, Metadata, Autoboxing, Enumeratations, Swing, Var args, collections static imports etc.
Java SE 6 11-Dec-2006 The seventh version had code name Mustang. The new inclusions or modification was Scripting Language support, Improved web service support trough JAX-WS , JDBC 4.0 support, support for pluggable annotations, Garbage collection algorithms.
Java SE 7.0 Till 2010 The Eight edition will have code name Dolphin. This version is in development stage. The key modification will be JVM support for dynamic language, New library for parallel computing on multi core, compressed 64 bit pointers, Automatic resource management.

 

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