Whether you've spent years programming or never looked at a line of code in your life, it is likely that you will have heard of the Java programming language. Even if it is just from a little coffee cup logo that might appear with other logos at the bottom right hand corner of your screen asking you to update your version of this mysterious Java.
Java is a programming language that was released in 1995 by Sun Microsystems; it is similar in syntax to the C and C++ languages though it has fewer low-level facilities and a simpler object model - which tends to make it easier and quicker to learn effectively. In recent years Java has been adopted as the preferred tool for programming by the majority of programmers, aside from in the field of computer game programming where C++ still dominates the field.
The promise of Java upon its release was "Write Once, Run Anywhere" (WORA). Anyone who has spent considerable amounts of time programming for different systems in different languages will know how irritating it is to have to debug your beautifully written code just because a Linux operating system runs differently to a Windows one. It wasn't long after the release of Java by Sun that the major web browsers started to incorporate the ability to plug Java applets into websites allowing more sophisticated and interesting sites to be created. It was this that really escalated the popularity of the language.
Being restricted to the realm of the internet on computers wasn't enough for Java and in 1998 with the launch of Java 2 a version of Java, J2ME, was created for mobile applications. As the popularity of mobile phones grew so did Java's domination of the programming industry, with more and more Java applications in demand.
Another feature of the Java programming language that works in its favour and puts it above some of its rival languages is that of its standardised libraries. Libraries available to all and filled with thousands of pre-programmed functions took a lot of the hassle out of programming. The only issue with the extensive libraries was searching through their vast wealth of knowledge to actually find what you were looking for because there was so much on offer! However, these libraries continue to provide freedom for programmers of all skill levels and save the time and effort of coding each individual function.
Throughout the years the Java programming language has been continually improving in terms of stability and performance. Since the 8th of May, 2007, much of Java has been released as free and open source software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL).
The five primary goals set out upon Java's creation have certainly helped the language to achieve its popularity in today's programming world:
- Simple, object oriented and familiar;
- Robust and secure;
- Architecture neutral and portable;
- Executed with high performance;
- Interpreted, threaded and dynamic.
There are no other programming languages with such popularity that can meet the initial fundamental requirements set out at the outset of the creation of Java. It will be difficult for any other language to attempt to infiltrate Java's extraordinary success.
