Last Updated on July 11, 2021
Java represents a number of computer software products and specifications from Oracle Corporation (previously developed by Sun Microsystems) that provide a system for developing application software and deploying it in a cross-platform environment.
Java is a network-aware language superficially resembling C and C++, but much smaller and more compact and cleanly designed.
It’s an unlimited-extent language with garbage collection like Lisp, but with static type checking.
The Java plaform consists of several programs including:
-
- Java Virtual Machine (JVM), a set of computer software programs and data structures which use a virtual machine model for the execution of other computer programs and scripts.
- Java Compiler.
- Java Runtime Environment, executes .class or .jar files, emulating the JVM instruction set by interpreting it, or using a just-in-time compiler (JIT).
- Class libraries provide:
- a well-known set of functions to perform common tasks.
- an abstract interface to tasks that would normally depend heavily on the hardware and operating system.
- APIs.
The vast majority of Java’s source code has been released under the GPL. However, there remains a few parts which are only distributed as precompiled binaries, without source code.
Features include:
- Software written in the Java language run on any supported hardware/operating-system platform. In other words, a program can be written once, compiled once, and run on multiple operating systems.
- Java syntax borrows heavily from C and C++ but it eliminates certain low-level constructs such as pointers and has a very simple memory model where every object is allocated on the heap and all variables of object types are references.
Website: www.java.com
Support:
Developer: Oracle Corporation
License: Most of the Java technologies have been released under GNU GPL, but some remains proprietary
Developer
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