Java

An Introduction to the Java Programming Language History of Java

In 1991, a group of Sun Microsystems engineers led by James Gosling decided to develop a language for consumer devices (cable boxes, etc.). They wanted the language to be small and use efficient code since these devices do not have powerful CPUs. They also wanted the language to be hardware independent since different manufacturers would use different CPUs. The project was code-named Green. These conditions led them to decide to compile the code to an intermediate machine-like code for an imaginary CPU called a virtual machine. (Actually, there is a real CPU that implements this virtual CPU now.) This intermediate code (called bytecode) is completely hardware independent. Programs are run by an interpreter that converts the bytecode to the appropriate native machine code. Thus, once the interpreter has been ported to a computer, it can run any bytecoded program. Sun uses UNIX for their computers, so the developers based their new language on C++. They picked C++ and not C because they wanted the language to be object-oriented. The original name of the language was Oak. However, they soon discovered that there was already a programming language called Oak, so they changed the name to Java. The Green project had a lot of trouble getting others interested in Java for smart devices. It was not until they decided to shift gears and market Java as a language for web applications that interest in Java took off. Many of the advantages that Java has for smart devices are even bigger advantages on the web. Currently, there are two versions of Java. The original version of Java is 1.0. At the moment (Nov. 1997), most browsers only support this version. The newer version is 1.1 (in addition 1.2 is in beta). Only MS Internet Explorer 4.0 and Sun's HotJava browsers currently support it. The biggest differences in the two versions are in the massive Java class libraries. Unfortunately, Java 1.1 applets will not run...