Java

Abstract

Abstract Java is a strongly typed, object‐oriented , programming language with emphasis on supporting the software engineering of distributed applications. Because of its facilities for user interface and network programming, it has been referred to as a network‐centric language. Introduced in 1995, the Java language incorporates many ideas of previous programming languages into a single language. For example, it combines strong typing, object orientation, modular program structure, exception handling, and concurrency. It also incorporates software engineering ideas for structuring and programming on a large scale. It was designed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and since has become an industry standard language. Java's development coincided with the widespread adoption of the Internet; it therefore aims at supporting software engineering of distributed applications. Java relies on a rich environment of libraries that support specific application areas such as network programming, database programming, and graphical user interface programming. New libraries are periodically added to support other applications. The Java virtual machine (JVM) is an abstract machine designed to execute Java (and other) programs. A Java compiler translates a Java program into a program for the JVM, that is, into a program written using the instructions of the JVM. To run the program, a JVM interpreter executes the program. JVM implementations, that is, JVM interpreters, exist for most computers and are embedded in many devices. A Java‐enabled browser is a Web browser that contains a JVM interpreter. It is therefore capable of executing Java programs and applets. The JVM is the main mechanism for achieving portability of Java programs across different machines. The JVM has also been used as the target machine for other language compilers as well.