Intro to Java

This article discusses Java's historical origins and key features. Java is a full-blown object-oriented language that uses very little memory. It is platform independent, and it can be executed as an application, an applet, or a servlet.

In 1991, Sun Microsystems started a research project that was code named Green. The project' was supposed to create a language that could run intelligent consumer electronic devices (set top boxes). The project resulted in an object-oriented (C- and C++ based) language. The author, James Gosling, of this new language called it, Oak. He named it Oak after an oak tree outside his office window. Unfortunately, there was already another computer language named Oak. As a result, the new name of Java arose when a group of Sun employees went to a local coffee shop.

Key Features

1. Java was designed to use small amounts of memory

2. Java has an automatic "garbage collection" process that releases memory when it is no longer needed.

3. Java is an object-oriented language

4. Java uses an intermediate language called bytecode to make it platform independent