Java is a simple, object
oriented, distributed, interpreted, robust, secure, architecture neutral,
portable, high-performance, multithreaded, and dynamic language. Today Java is not only used as Internet Language, but is
also invisible force behind many of the applications and devices that we use in
our day-to-day lives, From mobile phones to handheld devices, games and
navigation systems to e-business solution, Java can be found everywhere! It has
really wide range of applications, much wider than that of C and C++.
In 1990, James Gosling
and Patrick Naughton of Sun Microsystems, decided to create a pure object
oriented development environment that would be based on C++, but much easier to
learn and use than C++. Initially they named their project "Green
Project" and their team was called "Green team". Other major
contributors to the development of Java language were Mike Sheridan, Chris
Warth and Ed Frank. Also Bill Joy, Arthur van Hoff, Jonathan Payne, Frank
Yellin, and Tim Lindholm were the key players. The team led by James Gosling worked and created the
programming language that revolutionized our world -Java! Firstly, it was
called "Green talk" by James Gosling and file extension was .gt., After that, it was called Oak and was
developed as a part of the Green project. The original name of JAVA is OAK, Which is a tree name. In the year
1995, OAK was revised and developed
software called JAVA. Oak was
renamed as "Java" because it was already a trademark
by Oak Technologies. Java is an island
of Indonesia where first coffee was produced.
The Green team
demonstrated their new language with an interactive, handheld home
entertainment controller that was originally targeted at digital cable
television industry, For the green team members, it was an advance concept
at that time. But, it was suited for internet programming which was just
starting to take off. When Java was developed, nobody thought of it for a
platform like Internet, Instead, the primary motivation was the need for a
platform independent language that could be used to create software to
be embedded in various consumer electronic devices, such as microwave ovens and
remote controls. Later, Java technology as incorporated by Netscape.
Java is more than just
another programming language. It is both a language and a platform for
developing applications to run on the Internet or in corporate intranet
environments. Java is a Simple and yet Powerful object oriented programming
language, well suited to designing various kinds of applications including the
special web applications i.e. the applications that run on internet, called
applets.