What is Java?

Java is a programming language and computing platform first released by Sun Microsystems in 1995.

There are lots of applications and websites that will not work unless you have Java installed, and more are created every day. Java is fast, secure, and reliable. From laptops to datacenters, game consoles to scientific supercomputers, cell phones to the Internet, Java is everywhere!

Features of Java

Object Oriented

In Java, everything is an Object. Java can be easily extended since it is based on the Object model.

Platform Independent

Unlike many other programming languages including C and C++, when Java is compiled, it is not compiled into platform specific machine, rather into platform-independent byte code. This byte code is distributed over the web and interpreted by the Virtual Machine (JVM) on whichever platform it is being run on.

Simple

Java is designed to be easy to learn. If you understand the basic concept of OOP Java, it would be easy to master.

Secure

With Java's secure feature it enables to develop virus-free, tamper-free systems. Authentication techniques are based on public-key encryption.

Architecture-neutral

Java compiler generates an architecture-neutral object file format, which makes the compiled code executable on many processors, with the presence of Java runtime system.

Portable

Being architecture-neutral and having no implementation dependent aspects of the specification makes Java portable. The compiler in Java is written in ANSI C with a clean portability boundary, which is a POSIX subset.

Robust

Java makes an effort to eliminate error-prone situations by emphasizing mainly on compile time error checking and runtime checking.

Multithreaded

With Java's multithreaded feature it is possible to write programs that can perform many tasks simultaneously. This design feature allows the developers to construct interactive applications that can run smoothly.

Interpreted

Java byte code is translated on the fly to native machine instructions and is not stored anywhere. The development process is more rapid and analytical since the linking is an incremental and light-weight process.

High Performance

With the use of Just-In-Time compilers, Java enables high performance.

Distributed

Java is designed for the distributed environment of the internet.

Dynamic

Java is considered to be more dynamic than C or C++ since it is designed to adapt to an evolving environment. Java programs can carry an extensive amount of run-time information that can be used to verify and resolve accesses to objects at run-time.

Java vs JavaScript: What’s the Difference?

You might have heard of another language known as JavaScript, and the first thing that comes to our mind is that they must be the same thing. But they are not.

Java is an Object-Oriented Programming language that is platform-independent because it gets executed in the Java Virtual Machine (JVM).

On the other hand, JavaScript is  an object-oriented scripting language that helps to create dynamic HTML pages. Java vs JavaScript has become a hot topic of discussion these days.