Java - All facts at a glance

Some facts about Java Programming Language and its History

• Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems (which is now a subsidiary of Oracle Corporation) and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform.
• The Java language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities.
• Java applications are typically compiled to bytecode (class file) that can run on any Java Virtual Machine (JVM)regardless of computer architecture.
• The original and reference implementation Java compilers, virtual machines, and class libraries were developed by Sun from 1995.
• The language, initially called Oak after an oak tree that stood outside Gosling's office, also went by the name Green and ended up later renamed as Java, from a list of random words.
• Java promised "Write Once, Run Anywhere" (WORA), providing no-cost run-times on popular platforms.
• Major web browsers soon incorporated the ability to run Java applets within web pages, and Java quickly became popular.
• In 2006, for marketing purposes, Sun renamed new J2 versions as Java EE, Java ME, and Java SE, respectively.
• On November 13, 2006, Sun released much of Java as open source software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL).
• On May 8, 2007, Sun finished the process, making all of Java's core code available under free software/open-source distribution terms, aside from a small portion of code to which Sun did not hold the copyright.
• Platform Independence - This is achieved by compiling the Java language code to an intermediate representation called Java bytecode, instead of directly to platform-specific machine code.
• Java bytecode instructions are analogous to machine code, but are intended to be interpreted by a virtual machine (VM) written specifically for the host hardware.
• In brief: Java is a programming language, that allows programs to be written, that can then be run on more than one type of operating system. A program written in Java can run on Windows, UNIX, Linux etc. as long as there is a Java runtime environment installed.