Java its History and Uses
Posted by megri @ Monday, March 29, 2004
Java is a widely used language since it works on virtually all operating systems.
The creation of Java began in 1991 at Sun Microsystems by a group led by James Gosling. It was first named Oak after a tree Gosling could see from his office, but later changed to Java because of another language already named Oak.
Its original aim was to run on smart consumer appliances and devices, but was first successfully used for Web applets. Applets are programs which are downloaded over the web and appear in a browser to create animation, immediate interactive effects and response. Browsers must be equipped to handle applets, usually through a plugin.
The HotJava browser, unveiled in 1995 by the Sun team which was working on Java, was the first browser to run applets. By 1996, both Netscape and Microsoft browsers could support Java.
The applets phenomenon cooled off over the following years due most likely to the browser companies not supporting the most recent and fullest versions of Java.
Java, however, continued to grow in popularity despite its lack of a uniform identity.
Around 1997, Java began to reinvent itself as a platform-independent object oriented language, portable between both Unix and Windows, or any other operationg system which could run a Java Virtual Machine.
Also of great importance to the popularity of the language, was its growth as a web development language, fueled by the Servlet API, a server side implementation for creating dynamic web pages.
What It Can Do
Java is commonly used today because compiled programs (in .class format) run on most computers because Java interpreters and runtime environments, known as Java Virtual Machines (VMs), exist for most operating systems.
While differences in versions and early implementations made the slogan "write once run anywhere" a target for ridicule, the language has become much more stable since the release of Java 2 in 1998, although development of the language core itself has continued at a rapid pace.
The language has three families. The "standard edition", the "micro edition" and the "enterprise edition".
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