History of Java

Java is a general purpose, object –oriented programming

language developed by Sun Microsystems of USA in 1991.
Originally it was called OAK by James Gosling, one of the
inventors of the language; java was designed for the
development team to make the language simple, portable and
highly reliable. The java team which included Patrick
Naughton discovered that existing languages like C and C++
had limitations in terms of both reliability and portability.
However they modelled their new language Java on C and C+
+ but removed a number of features of C and C++ that were
considered as sources of problems and thus made Java a really
simple, reliable, portable and powerful language. These are the
important milestones in the development of Java.
*. 1990:- Sun Microsystems decided to develop special software
that could be used to manipulate consumer electronic devices.
A team of Sun Microsystems programmers headed by James
Gosling was formed to undertake this task.
*. 1991:- After exploring the possibility of using the most popular
object oriented language C++, the team announced new
language named Oak.
*. 1992 :- The team, known as Green Project team by Sun ,
demonstrated the application of their new language to control a
list of home appliances using a hand held device with tiny
touch sensitive screen.
*. 1993:- The WWW appeared on the internet and transformed
the text-based internet into a graphical rich environment. The
Green Project team came up with the idea of developing Web
Applets (tiny programs) using the new language that could run
on all types of computers connected to internet.
*. 1994:- The team developed a web browser called “Hotjava” to
locate and run applet programs on internet. Hotjava
demonstrated the power of the new language, thus making it
instantly popular among the internet users.
*.1995:- Oak was renamed “Java”, due to some legal problems.
Java is just a name and is not an acronym.
*1996:- Java established itself not only as leader for the Internet
programming but also as a general purpose, object oriented
programming language.
Main Features of Java
i. Compile and interpreted:- Usually, a computer language
either compiler based or interpreter based. Java combines
those approaches thus making Java is two stage systems.
Firstly, Java compiler translates source code into Byte code
instructions. Byte code instructions are not machine
instructions and therefore, in the second stage, Java interpreter
generates ‘Machine code’ that is running by the Java program.
So, we can say that Java is both a compiler based as well as
interpreter based language.
ii. Platform independent and portable: - The most
significant contribution of Java over other languages is
portability. Java programs can be easily moved from one
computer system to another, anywhere. Changes and
upgrades in operating system, processors and system
resources will not force any changes in Java program. This
is the reason why Java has become a popular language for
programming on internet, which interconnects different
kinds of system world wide. Java ensures portability in two
ways. First, Java compiler generates byte code instructions
that can be implemented on any machine. Second, the size
 of data types (inbuilt data types) are machine independent.
That is why Java is more portable language than other high
level object oriented languages.
iii. Object oriented: - Java is a true object oriented language.
Almost every thing in Java is an object. All programs code
and data reside within objects and classes. Java comes with
an extensive set of classes, arranged in packages that we can
use in our programs by inheriting it. The object model in
Java is simple and easy to extend.
iv. Secure :- Security becomes an important issue for a
language that is used for programming on Internet. Threat of
viruses and abuse of resource is everywhere. Java systems
not only verify all memory access but also ensures that no
viruses are communicated with an Applet. The absence of
pointer in Java ensures that programs can not gain accessed
to memory locations without proper authorization.
v. Distributed: - Java is designed as distributed language for
creating applications on network. It has the ability to share
both data and programs. Java application can open and
access remote object on internet as easily as they can do in
local system. This enables multiple programmers at multiple
places and work together on a single project.
vi. Simple, small and Familiar: - Java is a small and simple
language. Many features of c and c++ that are either
complex or sources of unreliable code are not part of Java.
As for example, Java does not use pointers, pre-processors,
header files, goto statement and many others. It also
eliminates operator overloading and multiple inheritance of
C++. Familiarity is another striking feature of Java. To
make the language look familiar to the existing
 programmers. It was modelled on C and C++ codes. So, we
can say Java is simple, small and familiar language.
vii. Multithreaded and interactive: - Multithreaded means
handling multiple tasks simultaneously. Java supports
multithreaded program this means that we need not wait for
the application to finish one task before beginning of
another. E.g:- We can listen any audio clips while scrolling
a page or working with a document. This feature greatly
improves the interactive performance of graphical
applications.
Dynamic and extensible: - Java is a dynamic language.
Java is capable of dynamically linking a new class
libraries methods and objects. Java can also determine
the type class through query making it possible to either
dynamically linked or abort the program depending on
the response. Java program supports functions written
in another language. Such as C and C++. These
functions are known as native methods. Native methods
are linked dynamically at run time.