Java

TOPIC 03 – INTRODUCING JAVA

 

 

LESSON NOTE

 

 

BRIEF HISTORY

 

Java was created at Sun Microsystems in 1995.  By the late 90s, it had become one of the major programming languages.  In fact, many universities adopted Java as their programming language of choice just a few years after it was released.  Java is still today one of the most used languages in the world.

 

ORACLE

 

Sun Microsystems merged with Oracle in 2010.  It is on Oracle’s website that you can download Java products and find the Java Documentation.

 

FEATURES OF JAVA

 

Java was designed with the following five principles in mind:

 

1.    Simple, Object-Oriented and Familiar

2.    Robust and Secure

3.    Architecture Neutral and Portable

4.    High Performance

5.    Interpreted, Threaded and Dynamic (source)

 

 

DISCUSSING PRINCIPLE #1 – Simple, Object-Oriented and Familiar

 

Simple?  Sorta.  It is beautifully consistent.  And once you understand what you are doing, it is certainly simple to work with.  

 

However, your first program will not look simple as there will be a few lines of code that you won’t understand initially.  Also, creating visual applications is a lot more complex than when using a programming language such as Flash or Visual Basic.  The advantage is that you have full control over everything.

 

Object-Oriented?  Yes.  Fully!

 

Familiar?  Yes.  It is familiar because it greatly resembles C++; an older but still very popular programming language.

 

DISCUSSING PRINCIPLE #2 – Robust and Secure

 

Java is known for being reliable/robust.  Its security has recently come under question as Oracle has had some difficulties patching an exploit.

 

DISCUSSING PRINCIPLE #3 – Architecture Neutral and Portable

 

This simply means that no matter which type of computer you have, you can run Java applications (as long as you have the Java Virtual Machine).  This is a big deal!  A Java program created on your computer can be shared with any other computer over the internet! 

 

DISCUSSING PRINCIPLE #4 – High Performance

 

Java does have a reputation of being considerably slower than C++.  After all, its bytecode is interpreted while C++ is compiled.  As of December 2012, testing suggests that Java is 44% slower than C++ (source).  That being said, it still has a high performance.

 

DISCUSSING PRINCIPLE #5 – Interpreted, Threaded and Dynamic

 

Java meets all of these criteria.  As mentioned before, its bytecode is interpreted.  We will learn about this threading and how it is dynamic in lessons to come.

 

 

JAVA’S MASQUOT

 

Meet Duke, Java’s Masquot: