Introduction to Java Programming Language
Java is a high level, secured, robust and object-oriented programming language.
It was developed by Sun Microsystem in 1995 and was later acquired by Oracle Corporation.
It’s an open source language and is free to access.
It’s platform independent language that means the code written in Java Language, after compilation it can be executed on any operating system be it LINUX, UNIX, Windows, Mac etc.
Write Once, Run Anywhere
The current version of Java is Java 8.
Some Important feature of Java Programming Language:
- Object Oriented Programming Language – A Language which supports Encapsulation, Polymorphism, Inheritance, Abstraction is a fully object oriented language. Java is one of them.
- Platform Independent Language – A code written in Java, when compiled can be executed on any operating system, be it Windows, Linux or Mac. Unlike C/C++ compiler, when Java is compiled, it is not converted into platform-specific language but it converts it into Bytecode which runs on JVM (Java Virtual Machine) and JVM are platform specific.
- Secure Language – Java runs inside JVM and it has no explicit pointer which makes it a secure language.
- Easy to learn and use – Java does not provide any pointers the hardest thing to learn in any programming language.
- Other features are it is a portable, robust, supports Multithreading, has performance and so on.
How Java become Platform Independent?
The languages which were famous before Java were C/C++. The compiler of those programming language use to convert the source code ( .c or .cpp) program into executable language or low-level language or machine language (.exe or .out for windows or Linux based OS respectively) and the code compiled for windows based operating system cannot be executed on Linux based and vice versa.
The Java compiler converts the source code (.java) into executable or low-level or machine language (.class) file. This code is not operating system specific. It runs on another layer that is JVM (Java Virtual Machine) which is installed on the respective operating system. This JVM is operating system specific.
In the next, tutorial we will cover How to setup Java Environment and will write a simple program. Till then Happy Learning 🙂