Java basics - Introduction¶
What is programming¶
We refer to "computer programming" when we design,create,test and maintain source code for computer programs or microcomputers (microelectronics).
"Source code" is written in the programming language which has it's own set of rules, it can be a modification of an existing program or something entirely new. Programming requires a lot of knowledge and experience in many different fields such as app design,algorithms, data structures, programming languages and tools, compilers or how the components of a PC work.
In programming the task of implementing the program itself is only one of the stages of development.
Why Java?¶
Here are a few reasons why beginners decide to use Java:
- High level object oriented language
- Platform independent (Write Once, Run Anywhere)
- Automatic memory administration
- Ease of use
- Popularity
- Big community
- A lot of literature
- Big interest on the job market
History of the Java Language¶
We can pinpoint the birth date of Java to the year 1991. It was then when Sun together with Patrick Naughton and James Gosling decided to create a small and easy language, which could be run on many platforms with different settings. The project was titled Green.
The first version of Java 1.0. was released in 1996. Unfortunately, it was not a big success and the Sun engineers were well aware of that. Mistakes were soon fixed and new libraries were added including a GUI and the reflection mechanism was fixed. All of this was done with Java 1.1.
The following versions of Java, up until the current one, are mainly based on adding new functionalities and increasing the performance of the standard libraries. Most revisions were made with version 5.0. where generic clsses and static import were introduced.
You can find more information on Java history in our Workbook - Introduction to Java