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1 Introduction to Java
Introduction to Java
The Java programming language was developed by James Gosling for Sun
MicroSystems. Java 1.0 was released in 1996. Java Programs are written in plain text
files using Notepad or an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) tool such as
Eclipse. The source code file is saved with an extension .java. The source file is
compiled using javac compiler that generates a class file with extension .class. A
.class file contains the bytecode the machine language of the Java Virtual Machine
(JVM). The java launcher tool then runs the application with an instance of the JVM.
Javac compiles the java code to a bytecode, which is run by a Java Virtual
Machine, unlike conventional languages which are generally designed either to be
compiled to native (machine) code, or to be interpreted from source code at runtime.
The following are some characteristics of the Java language:

It is based on object-oriented programming.

The same code can be executed on multiple operating systems.

It contains built-in support for using computer networks.

It can be designed to execute code from remote sources.

The Java Platform

A Platform, such as Microsoft Windows, Linux, Unix and Mac OS, is the hardware or
software environment in which a program runs. Most platforms can be described as a
combination of the operating system and underlying hardware. The Java platform differs
from most other platforms in that, it is a software only platform that runs on top of other
hardware-based platforms.
The Java platform has two components:

Java Virtual Machine

Java Application Programming Interface (API)

The Java Virtual Machine, is the base for the Java platform and is portable on various
hardware-based platforms.

The API is a large collection of ready-made software components that provide many
useful capabilities. It is grouped into libraries of related classes and interfaces; these
libraries are known as packages.

Advantages of Java
Java has significant advantages over the other languages. The following are
some advantages of using Java:

Java is easy to Use

Java is Object Oriented

Java is platform-independent

Java designed to make distributed computing easy

Java is Multithreaded A Java program can create any number of threads to

execute more than one process in parallel.

Architecture neutral A Java program will run on any platform that supports the
Java run-time system.

Portable
High performance The Javas bytecode is translated to native machine
instructions.

Java is Reliable/Robust by emphasizing on early error checking.

Secure Java is designed to be safe against malicious attack.