Java – Overview

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Java Overview

Java is a high-level object-oriented, multi-threaded, secure, robust and general computer programming language. Java is a powerful technology that is widely used.

What is Java

Java is originally established by Sun Microsystems (now a works as supporter for Oracle) in 1995. James Gosling is recognized as the father of Java. Before Java, the name was Oak. But already Oak was a register company, so James Gosling and his team changed the name Oak to Java.

Java is a high-level programming language and platform. Basically platform is a hardware or software used to run an application and Java having its own JVM, so we can run java on any platform.Today Java is running on a various number of platforms, such as Windows, MacOS, and UNIX.

Example

Below is the basic Java program example

class Test{ 
   public static void main(String args[]){   
      System.out.println("My First Java Program"); 
   } 
}

Output

My First Java Program

Functionality of Java

As per the Sun Microsystems team, currently 3 billion devices run on Java There are many applications and tools that currently use Java. Some of them are:

  • Desktop GUI Applications
  • Mobile Applications
  • Embedded systems such as home appliances, office automation, security, telecommunications, equipment, entertainment, space, banking and finance
  • Web-based Applications such as
  • Enterprise Applications
  • Scientific Applications
  • Gaming Applications
  • Business Applications
  • Distributed Applications
  • Cloud-based Applications
  • Robotics
  • Java tools are Eclipse, NetBeans,Jenkins, Android Studio, Apache Maven etc.

Java Applications

There are some commonly used applications that uses Java programming language:

Web-based Applications:

Java is also used for web development. It offers excellent support for websites via Servlet, Struts or JSP. With these technologies, you can develop any website you need. The simple coding and high security offered by this programming language facilitate the development of a wide range of applications for health, public safety, education and insurance.

Enterprise Applications:

Java is the first choice of many software developers for writing applications and Java Enterprise Edition (Java EE) is a popular platform that provides an API and a runtime environment for writing. It also includes network applications and web services. JavaEE is also considered the backbone of many banking applications that have Java running on the user interface on the back-end server.

Mobile Application:

An application that is designed for mobile devices is called a mobile application. Currently, Android and Java ME are used to create mobile applications.

Business Applications:

The Java EE platform is designed to help developers build large-scale, multi-tier, scalable, reliable and secure network applications. These applications are designed to meet the challenges faced by large companies. Features that make business applications powerful, such as security and reliability, often make those applications complex. The Java EE platform reduces the complexity of developing business applications by providing a development model, API and runtime that allows developers to focus on functionality.

Distributed Applications:

Distributed applications have several common requirements that arise in particular due to their distributed nature and the dynamic nature of the system and platforms on which they operate. Java provides options for creating these applications. Jini (Java Intelligent Networking Infrastructure) is an infrastructure to provide, register and find services distributed according to its specifications. An integral part of Jini is Java Spaces, a mechanism that supports the distribution, persistence and migration of objects on a network.

Java Editions

There are four editions of Java:

1. Java SE

The Java SE (Java Standard Edition) API provides basic functions of the Java programming language. It explains everything from the basic type and object of the Java programming language to the advanced classes used for networking, security, database accessibility, graphical user interface (GUI) development, and parsing. XML.

In addition to the basic API, the Java SE platform includes a virtual machine, development tools, application technologies, and class libraries and other tools commonly used in Java technology applications.It contains topics like OOPs, String, Regex, Exception, Inner classes, Multithreading, I/O Stream, Networking, AWT, Swing, Reflection, Collection, etc.

2. Java EE

The Java EE (Java Enterprise Edition) platform is created on top of the Java SE platform. Java EE provides an API and runtime environment for developing the platform and running large, multi-dimensional, scalable, reliable and secure network applications.It contains topics like Servlet, JSP, Web Services, EJB, JPA, etc.

3. Java ME

The Java ME (Java Micro Edition) platform provides a API and virtual machine for running Java programming language applications on small devices such as cell phones. The API is a subset of the Java SE API, with specialized class libraries useful for developing small device applications. Java ME applications are often subscribed to the Java EE platform services.

4. Java FX

JavaFX applications use machine accelerated images and media to provide more user-friendly features with a modern interface and dedicated high performance APIs to connect to rich network interfaces. JavaFX software can support Java EE platform services.