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 multipleinheritance, 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 typechecking - 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 objectfile executable on any processor supporting the Java run-timesystem. 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 NetscapeNavigator version 2.0.

Home .

Usenet newsgroup: news:comp.lang.java.

E-mail: [email protected].

(1995-12-06)