Java
<World-Wide Web, language> (After the Indonesian island, a source of
programming fluid) A simple,
object-oriented, distributed,
interpreted, robust, secure, architecture-neutral,
portable,
multithreaded, dynamic, buzzword-compliant, general-purpose programming language developed by Sun Microsystems in 1995(?).
Java supports programming for the
Internet in the form of
platform-independent Java "applets".
Java is similar to
C++ without
operator overloading (though it does have
method overloading), without
multiple inheritance, and extensive automatic coercions.
It has automatic
garbage collection.
Java programs can run stand-alone on small computers.
The
interpreter and
class support take about 40 kilobytes; adding the standard libraries and
thread support (essentially a self-contained
microkernel) adds an additional 175Kb.
Java extends
C++'s
object-oriented facilities with those of
Objective C for dynamic method resolution.
Java has an extensive library of routines for
TCP/IP protocols like
HTTP and
FTP.
Java applications can access objects across the
Internet via
URLs as easily as on the local
file system.
The Java compiler and
linker both enforce strong type checking - procedures must be explicitly typed.
Java supports the creation of
virus-free, tamper-free systems with
authentication based on
public-key encryption.
The Java compiler generates an architecture-neutral object file executable on any processor supporting the Java
run-time system.
The object code consists of bytecode instructions designed to be both easy to interpret on any machine and easily translated into native {machine code} at load time.
The Java libraries provide portable interfaces.
For example, there is an abstract Window class and implementations of it for Unix, Microsoft Windows and the Macintosh.
The run-time system is written in POSIX-compliant ANSI C.
Java applets can be executed as attachments in World-Wide Web documents using either Sun's HotJava browser or Netscape Navigator} version 2.0.
Home (http://java.sun.com/).
Usenet newsgroup: news:comp.lang.java.
E-mail: <
[email protected]>.
