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HistoryofJavaprogramminglanguagefreejavaguide.com
JavaisanobjectorientedprogramminglanguagedevelopedbyJamesGoslingand
colleaguesatSunMicrosystemsintheearly1990s.Unlikeconventionallanguageswhich
aregenerallydesignedeithertobecompiledtonative(machine)code,ortobeinterpreted
fromsourcecodeatruntime,Javaisintendedtobecompiledtoabytecode,whichisthen
run(generallyusingJITcompilation)byaJavaVirtualMachine.
ThelanguageitselfborrowsmuchsyntaxfromCandC++buthasasimplerobjectmodel
andfewerlowlevelfacilities.JavaisonlydistantlyrelatedtoJavaScript,thoughtheyhave
similarnamesandshareaClikesyntax.
History
Javawasstartedasaprojectcalled"Oak"byJamesGoslinginJune1991.Gosling'sgoals
weretoimplementavirtualmachineandalanguagethathadafamiliarClikenotationbut
withgreateruniformityandsimplicitythanC/C++.ThefirstpublicimplementationwasJava
1.0in1995.Itmadethepromiseof"WriteOnce,RunAnywhere",withfreeruntimeson
popularplatforms.Itwasfairlysecureanditssecuritywasconfigurable,allowingfornetwork
andfileaccesstobelimited.Themajorwebbrowserssoonincorporateditintotheirstandard
configurationsinasecure"applet"configuration.popularquickly.Newversionsforlargeand
smallplatforms(J2EEandJ2ME)soonweredesignedwiththeadventof"Java2".Sunhas
notannouncedanyplansfora"Java3".
In1997,SunapproachedtheISO/IECJTC1standardsbodyandlatertheEcmaInternational
toformalizeJava,butitsoonwithdrewfromtheprocess.Javaremainsaproprietarydefacto
standardthatiscontrolledthroughtheJavaCommunityProcess.Sunmakesmostofits
Javaimplementationsavailablewithoutcharge,withrevenuebeinggeneratedbyspecialized
productssuchastheJavaEnterpriseSystem.SundistinguishesbetweenitsSoftware
DevelopmentKit(SDK)andRuntimeEnvironment(JRE)whichisasubsetoftheSDK,the
primarydistinctionbeingthatintheJREthecompilerisnotpresent.
Philosophy
TherewerefiveprimarygoalsinthecreationoftheJavalanguage:
1.Itshouldusetheobjectorientedprogrammingmethodology.
2.Itshouldallowthesameprogramtobeexecutedonmultipleoperatingsystems.
3.Itshouldcontainbuiltinsupportforusingcomputernetworks.
4.Itshouldbedesignedtoexecutecodefromremotesourcessecurely.
5.Itshouldbeeasytousebyselectingwhatwasconsideredthegoodpartsofotherobject
orientedlanguages.
Toachievethegoalsofnetworkingsupportandremotecodeexecution,Javaprogrammers
sometimesfinditnecessarytouseextensionssuchasCORBA,InternetCommunications
Engine,orOSGi.
Objectorientation
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Thefirstcharacteristic,objectorientation("OO"),referstoamethodofprogrammingand
languagedesign.AlthoughtherearemanyinterpretationsofOO,oneprimarydistinguishing
ideaistodesignsoftwaresothatthevarioustypesofdataitmanipulatesarecombined
togetherwiththeirrelevantoperations.Thus,dataandcodearecombinedintoentitiescalled
objects.Anobjectcanbethoughtofasaselfcontainedbundleofbehavior(code)andstate
(data).Theprincipleistoseparatethethingsthatchangefromthethingsthatstaythesame
often,achangetosomedatastructurerequiresacorrespondingchangetothecodethat
operatesonthatdata,orviceversa.Thisseparationintocoherentobjectsprovidesamore
stablefoundationforasoftwaresystem'sdesign.Theintentistomakelargesoftware
projectseasiertomanage,thusimprovingqualityandreducingthenumberoffailedprojects.
AnotherprimarygoalofOOprogrammingistodevelopmoregenericobjectssothatsoftware
canbecomemorereusablebetweenprojects.Ageneric"customer"object,forexample,
shouldhaveroughlythesamebasicsetofbehaviorsbetweendifferentsoftwareprojects,
especiallywhentheseprojectsoverlaponsomefundamentallevelastheyoftendoinlarge
organizations.Inthissense,softwareobjectscanhopefullybeseenmoreaspluggable
components,helpingthesoftwareindustrybuildprojectslargelyfromexistingandwelltested
pieces,thusleadingtoamassivereductionindevelopmenttimes.Softwarereusabilityhas
metwithmixedpracticalresults,withtwomaindifficulties:thedesignoftrulygenericobjects
ispoorlyunderstood,andamethodologyforbroadcommunicationofreuseopportunitiesis
lacking.Someopensourcecommunitieswanttohelpeasethereuseproblem,byproviding
authorswithwaystodisseminateinformationaboutgenerallyreusableobjectsandobject
libraries.
Platformindependence
Thesecondcharacteristic,platformindependence,meansthatprogramswrittenintheJava
languagemustrunsimilarlyondiversehardware.Oneshouldbeabletowriteaprogramonce
andrunitanywhere.
ThisisachievedbymostJavacompilersbycompilingtheJavalanguagecode"halfway"to
bytecode(specificallyJavabytecode)simplifiedmachineinstructionsspecifictotheJava
platform.Thecodeisthenrunonavirtualmachine(VM),aprogramwritteninnativecodeon
thehosthardwarethatinterpretsandexecutesgenericJavabytecode.Further,standardized
librariesareprovidedtoallowaccesstofeaturesofthehostmachines(suchasgraphics,
threadingandnetworking)inunifiedways.Notethat,althoughthere'sanexplicitcompiling
stage,atsomepoint,theJavabytecodeisinterpretedorconvertedtonativemachine
instructionsbytheJITcompiler.
TherearealsoimplementationsofJavacompilersthatcompiletonativeobjectcode,suchas
GCJ,removingtheintermediatebytecodestage,buttheoutputofthesecompilerscanonly
berunonasinglearchitecture.
Sun'slicenseforJavainsiststhatallimplementationsbe"compatible".Thisresultedina
legaldisputewithMicrosoftafterSunclaimedthattheMicrosoftimplementationdidnot
supporttheRMIandJNIinterfacesandhadaddedplatformspecificfeaturesoftheirown.In
response,MicrosoftnolongershipsJavawithWindows,andinrecentversionsofWindows,
InternetExplorercannotsupportJavaappletswithoutathirdpartyplugin.However,Sunand
othershavemadeavailableJavaruntimesystemsatnocostforthoseandotherversionsof
Windows.
Thefirstimplementationsofthelanguageusedaninterpretedvirtualmachinetoachieve
portability.Theseimplementationsproducedprogramsthatranmoreslowlythanprograms
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compiledtonativeexecutables,forinstancewritteninCorC++,sothelanguagesuffereda
reputationforpoorperformance.MorerecentJVMimplementationsproduceprogramsthat
runsignificantlyfasterthanbefore,usingmultipletechniques.
Thefirsttechniqueistosimplycompiledirectlyintonativecodelikeamoretraditional
compiler,skippingbytecodesentirely.Thisachievesgoodperformance,butattheexpense
ofportability.Anothertechnique,knownasjustintimecompilation(JIT),translatestheJava
bytecodesintonativecodeatthetimethattheprogramisrunwhichresultsinaprogramthat
executesfasterthaninterpretedcodebutalsoincurscompilationoverheadduringexecution.
MoresophisticatedVMsusedynamicrecompilation,inwhichtheVMcananalyzethe
behavioroftherunningprogramandselectivelyrecompileandoptimizecriticalpartsofthe
program.Dynamicrecompilationcanachieveoptimizationssuperiortostaticcompilation
becausethedynamiccompilercanbaseoptimizationsonknowledgeabouttheruntime
environmentandthesetofloadedclasses.JITcompilationanddynamicrecompilationallow
Javaprogramstotakeadvantageofthespeedofnativecodewithoutlosingportability.
Portabilityisatechnicallydifficultgoaltoachieve,andJava'ssuccessatthatgoalhasbeen
mixed.AlthoughitisindeedpossibletowriteprogramsfortheJavaplatformthatbehave
consistentlyacrossmanyhostplatforms,thelargenumberofavailableplatformswithsmall
errorsorinconsistenciesledsometoparodySun's"Writeonce,runanywhere"sloganas
"Writeonce,debugeverywhere".
PlatformindependentJavaishoweververysuccessfulwithserversideapplications,suchas
Webservices,servlets,andEnterpriseJavaBeans,aswellaswithEmbeddedsystems
basedonOSGi,usingEmbeddedJavaenvironments.
Automaticgarbagecollection
OneideabehindJava'sautomaticmemorymanagementmodelisthatprogrammersshould
besparedtheburdenofhavingtoperformmanualmemorymanagement.Insomelanguages
theprogrammerallocatesmemorytocreateanyobjectstoredontheheapandis
responsibleforlatermanuallydeallocatingthatmemorytodeleteanysuchobjects.Ifa
programmerforgetstodeallocatememoryorwritescodethatfailstodosoinatimely
fashion,amemoryleakcanoccur:theprogramwillconsumeapotentiallyarbitrarilylarge
amountofmemory.Inaddition,ifaregionofmemoryisdeallocatedtwice,theprogramcan
becomeunstableandmaycrash.Finally,innongarbagecollectedenvironments,thereisa
certaindegreeofoverheadandcomplexityofusercodetotrackandfinalizeallocations.
InJava,thispotentialproblemisavoidedbyautomaticgarbagecollection.Theprogrammer
determineswhenobjectsarecreated,andtheJavaruntimeisresponsibleformanagingthe
object'slifecycle.Theprogramorotherobjectscanreferenceanobjectbyholdinga
referencetoit(which,fromalowlevelpointofview,isitsaddressontheheap).Whenno
referencestoanobjectremain,theJavagarbagecollectorautomaticallydeletesthe
unreachableobject,freeingmemoryandpreventingamemoryleak.Memoryleaksmaystill
occurifaprogrammer'scodeholdsareferencetoanobjectthatisnolongerneededin
otherwords,theycanstilloccurbutathigherconceptuallevels.
Theuseofgarbagecollectioninalanguagecanalsoaffectprogrammingparadigms.If,for
example,thedeveloperassumesthatthecostofmemoryallocation/recollectionislow,they
maychoosetomorefreelyconstructobjectsinsteadofpreinitializing,holdingandreusing
them.Withthesmallcostofpotentialperformancepenalties(innerloopconstructionof
large/complexobjects),thisfacilitatesthreadisolation(noneedtosynchronizeasdifferent
threadsworkondifferentobjectinstances)anddatahiding.Theuseoftransientimmutable
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valueobjectsminimizessideeffectprogramming.
ComparingJavaandC++,itispossibleinC++toimplementsimilarfunctionality(for
example,amemorymanagementmodelforspecificclassescanbedesignedinC++to
improvespeedandlowermemoryfragmentationconsiderably),withthepossiblecostofextra
developmenttimeandsomeapplicationcomplexity.InJava,garbagecollectionisbuiltinand
virtuallyinvisibletothedeveloper.Thatis,developersmayhavenonotionofwhengarbage
collectionwilltakeplaceasitmaynotnecessarilycorrelatewithanyactionsbeingexplicitly
performedbythecodetheywrite.Dependingonintendedapplication,thiscanbebeneficial
ordisadvantageous:theprogrammerisfreedfromperforminglowleveltasks,butatthesame
timelosestheoptionofwritinglowerlevelcode.
Syntax
ThesyntaxofJavaislargelyderivedfromC++.However,unlikeC++,whichcombinesthe
syntaxforstructured,generic,andobjectorientedprogramming,Javawasbuiltfromthe
grounduptobevirtuallyfullyobjectoriented:everythinginJavaisanobjectwiththe
exceptionsofatomicdatatypes(ordinalandrealnumbers,booleanvalues,andcharacters)
andeverythinginJavaiswritteninsideaclass.
Applet
Javaappletsareprogramsthatareembeddedinotherapplications,typicallyinaWebpage
displayedinaWebbrowser.
//Hello.java
importjava.applet.Applet
importjava.awt.Graphics
publicclassHelloextendsApplet{
publicvoidpaint(Graphicsgc){
gc.drawString("Hello,world!",65,95)
}
}
Thisappletwillsimplydrawthestring"Hello,world!"intherectanglewithinwhichtheapplet
willrun.ThisisaslightlybetterexampleofusingJava'sOOfeaturesinthattheclass
explicitlyextendsthebasic"Applet"class,thatitoverridesthe"paint"methodandthatit
usesimportstatements.
<!Hello.html>
<html>
<head>
<title>HelloWorldApplet</title>
</head>
<body>
<appletcode="Hello"width="200"height="200">
</applet>
</body>
</html>
AnappletisplacedinanHTMLdocumentusingthe<applet>HTMLelement.Theapplettag
hasthreeattributesset:code="Hello"specifiesthenameoftheAppletclassand
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width="200"height="200"setsthepixelwidthandheightoftheapplet.(Appletsmayalsobe
embeddedinHTMLusingeithertheobjectorembedelement,althoughsupportforthese
elementsbyWebbrowsersisinconsistent.
Servlet
JavaservletsareserversideJavaEEcomponentsthatgenerateresponsestorequestsfrom
clients.
//Hello.java
importjava.io.*
importjavax.servlet.*
publicclassHelloextendsGenericServlet{
publicvoidservice(ServletRequestrequest,ServletResponseresponse)
throwsServletException,IOException
{
response.setContentType("text/html")
PrintWriterpw=response.getWriter()
pw.println("Hello,world!")
pw.close()
}
}
TheimportstatementsdirecttheJavacompilertoincludeallofthepublicclassesand
interfacesfromthejava.ioandjavax.servletpackagesinthecompilation.TheHelloclass
extendstheGenericServletclasstheGenericServletclassprovidestheinterfaceforthe
servertoforwardrequeststotheservletandcontroltheservlet'slifecycle.
TheHelloclassoverridestheservice(ServletRequest,ServletResponse)methoddefinedby
theServletinterfacetoprovidethecodefortheservicerequesthandler.Theservice()method
ispassedaServletRequestobjectthatcontainstherequestfromtheclientanda
ServletResponseobjectusedtocreatetheresponsereturnedtotheclient.Theservice()
methoddeclaresthatitthrowstheexceptionsServletExceptionandIOExceptionifaproblem
preventsitfromrespondingtotherequest.
ThesetContentType(String)methodintheresponseobjectiscalledtosettheMIMEcontent
typeofthereturneddatato"text/html".ThegetWriter()methodintheresponsereturnsa
PrintWriterobjectthatisusedtowritethedatathatissenttotheclient.Theprintln(String)
methodiscalledtowritethe"Hello,world!"stringtotheresponseandthentheclose()
methodiscalledtoclosetheprintwriter,whichcausesthedatathathasbeenwrittentothe
streamtobereturnedtotheclient.
Swingapplication
SwingistheadvancedgraphicaluserinterfacelibraryfortheJavaSEplatform.
//Hello.java
importjavax.swing.*
publicclassHelloextendsJFrame{
Hello(){
setDefaultCloseOperation(WindowConstants.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE)
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add(newJLabel("Hello,world!"))
pack()
}
publicstaticvoidmain(String[]args){
newHello().setVisible(true)
}
}
TheimportstatementdirectstheJavacompilertoincludeallofthepublicclassesand
interfacesfromthejavax.swingpackageinthecompilation.TheHelloclassextendsthe
JFrameclasstheJFrameclassimplementsawindowwithatitlebarwithaclosecontrol.
TheHello()constructorinitializestheframebyfirstcallingthesetDefaultCloseOperation(int)
methodinheritedfromJFrametosetthedefaultoperationwhentheclosecontrolonthetitle
barisselectedtoWindowConstants.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSEthiscausestheJFrametobe
disposedofwhentheframeisclosed(asopposedtomerelyhidden),whichallowstheJVM
toexitandtheprogramtoterminate.NextanewJLabeliscreatedforthestring"Hello,
world!"andtheadd(Component)methodinheritedfromtheContainersuperclassiscalledto
addthelabeltotheframe.Thepack()methodinheritedfromtheWindowsuperclassiscalled
tosizethewindowandlayoutitscontents.
Themain()methodiscalledbytheJVMwhentheprogramstarts.ItinstantiatesanewHello
frameandcausesittobedisplayedbycallingthesetVisible(boolean)methodinheritedfrom
theComponentsuperclasswiththebooleanparametertrue.Notethatoncetheframeis
displayed,exitingthemainmethoddoesnotcausetheprogramtoterminatebecausethe
AWTeventdispatchingthreadremainsactiveuntilalloftheSwingtoplevelwindowshave
beendisposed.
Lookandfeel
ThedefaultlookandfeelofGUIapplicationswritteninJavausingtheSwingtoolkitisvery
differentfromnativeapplications.Itispossibletospecifyadifferentlookandfeelthroughthe
pluggablelookandfeelsystemofSwing.ClonesofWindows,GTKandMotifaresuppliedby
Sun.ApplealsoprovidesanAqualookandfeelforMacOSX.Thoughpriorimplementations
oftheselookandfeelshavebeenconsideredlacking,SwinginJavaSE6addressesthis
problembyusingmorenativewidgetdrawingroutinesoftheunderlyingplatforms.
Alternatively,thirdpartytoolkitssuchaswx4jorSWTmaybeusedforincreasedintegration
withthenativewindowingsystem.
LackofOOpurityandfacilities
Java'sprimitivetypesarenotobjects.Primitivetypesholdtheirvaluesinthestackrather
thanbeingreferencestovalues.ThiswasaconsciousdecisionbyJava'sdesignersfor
performancereasons.Becauseofthis,Javaisnotconsideredtobeapureobjectoriented
programminglanguage.However,asofJava5.0,autoboxingenablesprogrammerstowrite
asifprimitivetypesaretheirwrapperclasses,andfreelyinterchangebetweenthemfor
improvedflexibility.Javadesignersdecidednottoimplementcertainfeaturespresentinother
OOlanguages,including:
*multipleinheritance
*operatoroverloading
*classproperties
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*tuples
JavaRuntimeEnvironment
TheJavaRuntimeEnvironmentorJREisthesoftwarerequiredtorunanyapplication
deployedontheJavaPlatform.EnduserscommonlyuseaJREinsoftwarepackagesand
Webbrowserplugins.SunalsodistributesasupersetoftheJREcalledtheJava2SDK
(morecommonlyknownastheJDK),whichincludesdevelopmenttoolssuchastheJava
compiler,Javadoc,anddebugger.
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