Java Programming Language - Essay Example

Java Programming Language Name Institution Date Java Programming Language Java is a language of programming that was developed by Sun Microsystems. According to Liang (2007). It makes use of a security model that is strong, that consequently prevents programs of Java that have been compiled from illegally accessing resources present on the system where they execute or on the network. World-wide web browsers that are popular, together with a few world-wide servers and other systems are used to implement Java interpreters. These are normally used to display interfaces of interactive user, and to subsequently to script behavior patterns on the systems. While problems of implementation caused vulnerabilities of security in some interpreters of Java such as JVM’s or Java Virtual Machines, this language design enables it to be possible theoretically to execute program with meaningful assurance concerning its security, and especially its capacity to be harmful (Simmons, 2007). This language of programming was expressly designed to be utilized in the environment of the Internet that is distributed. It was designed in such a manner that it had the feel and look of C++ language, but this version of programming language is easier to make use of as compared to C++ and makes an emphasis on a programming model that is object-oriented. Java can be made use of in creation of applications that are complete that may run on a single computer or distributed among clients and servers in a network. Besides it can be made use of in building a module of application that is small or applet to be used as part of a web page. Applets enable the user of web page to interact with the page (Barclay & Savage, 2007). Features of Java The programs created by Java are portable in a network. The source program is put together into what is known as bytecode, this can be run anywhere in network on a client or a server. The Java virtual machine converts the bytecode by interpreting it into a code that will consequently run on the real computer hardware. This indicates that individual computer platform discrepancies like lengths of instruction can be accommodated and recognized locally at the time the execution of the program is taking place. Platform-specific versions of the program are no longer required (Liang, 2007). According to Gewei (2011), the code is robust. In this respect it means that, as opposed to programs written used C++ language and somehow other languages, the objects of Java have no references to data that is external to other objects that are known or themselves. According to Barclay and Savage (2007), this make sure that any instruction does not possess the data storage address in another application or the operating system itself, any of the two would result into the program and somehow the operating system itself terminating or crashing. The virtual machine makes several checks on each object to make sure integrity prevails (Bidgoli, 2004). Java language is object oriented, meaning, among many other characteristics, an object can make use of being part of a class of objects and take over code which is common to the class. Objects are viewed as “nouns” that a user might link to as opposed to procedural “verbs” that are traditional. A method can be viewed as behaviors or capabilities of one of the object. Apart from being executed at the client as opposed to the server, a Java applet possesses other features instituted to make it run relatively fast. As compared to C++, It is easier to learn Java (Simmons, 2007). History of Java Java was invented in the June 1991 by James Gosling as a project named ‘Oak’. The objectives of James Gosling were the implementation of a language and a virtual machine that had a C-like notation that was familiar but having greater simplicity and uniformity as compared to C or C++. The ever first public implementation was Java 1.0 in the year 1995. It carried the slogan, “Write Once, Run Anywhere”, with free runtimes on platforms that are popular. It was to a large degree secure and has a configurable security, giving room to file and network access to be limited. The main web browsers soon integrated it into their standard configurations in “applet” configuration that were secure popularly fast. New versions for small and large platforms were soon designed with the advent of “Java” (Pravin, 2011). Java was originally named Oak after the oak tree that was found outside the office of James Gosling and later on it assumed the name “Green”, and later on named Java from a list of words that were randomly picked. Java language was initially designed for interactive television, but it was very advanced for the advanced for the digital cable television industry during the time. The inventors wanted the language to be small and make use of efficient code since the devices lacked powerful CPUs. They also wanted a language that was independent of the hardware and different manufacturers would make use of different CPUs. The conditions led them to opt to compilation of the code to an immediate machine-like code for a CPU which was imaginary that was referred to as a virtual machine (Barclay & Savage, 2007). This intermediate code is fully independent from the hardware. An interpreter runs programs by converting the bytecode to the relevant native machine code. Subsequently, so long as the interpreter has been ported to a computer, it is able to run any bytecoded program. Sun utilizes UNIX for their computers; consequently the developers based the new language on C++. They chose C++ as opposed to C owing to the fact that they wanted the language to be object-oriented. The name was changed to Java from oak after realizing that there was another programming language going by the same. The project dubbed “Green project” had a lot of trouble getting others interested in Java for smart devices (Gewei, 2011). It was not until they resolved to change tactics and market Java as a programming language for the web applications that any interest in Java was triggered. Several of the advantages that Java possesses for smart devices are even bugger advantages on the web. At the moment there exist two versions of Java programming language. The original version 1.0 support most of the browsers while the newer version 1.1 which is in beta only Sun’s ‘hotJava ‘ and MS Internet Explorer 4.0 browsers which supports it currently. The huge differences in the two versions of Java are found in the Java class libraries that are massive. Web browsers that do not support 1.1 cannot run Java 1.1 applets. Nevertheless there is possibility of creation of 1.0 applets with development system of Java 1.1. The importance of Java Java can be utilized for a variety of development, commencing from application software to web applications. Web designers have come to appreciate Java importance in their work due to the principles on which it was developed; object oriented and familiarity, simplicity, high performance and portability and architecture neutrality. Java is more so designed to be threaded, interpreted and dynamic. These features are almost the same characteristics required of a good web design. Prior to the invention of Java, web designing was accomplished with hypermedia, which translated them to being static. Liang (2007) notes that websites had links that led to other web pages but lacked any form of interaction. Java made WebPages to be interactive. Web designers are able to come up with content that other users are able to run on their computers. Currently Web contents can be in the form of software that is able to support animations, spreadsheets, tutorials, interactive games and any other thing that can come in the minds of programmers. The applications can be implemented on the web platforms with interactivity that is real; users can get continuous feedback from the application that is instant (Liskov and Guttag, 2001). Java programming language makes it possible to include desktop applications that are complete and software in the web pages. This is done through the use of a special Hypertext Markup Language element known as applet. It makes it possible for real-time graphical input and output, making the web pages to experience great degree of interactivity. The Java Servlet, which is another Java tool, gives to the web designers a consistent manner of implementing web server functionality. This permits other systems easy access. Another important feature that makes Java programming language useful in web designing is its ability to run on any platform. Web pages having Java content can run on Linux, Mac or Windows environments. There is no reason of having different designs for each of the platforms. Besides, Java is portable. It possesses a small size and does not require a specification that is high for the machine to run on. According to Sahni and Kumar (2002), the nature of Java of being object-oriented ensures convenience when web designing with Java. Encapsulation permits designers to present a webpage that is complex to the user by use of simple terms, keeping away the complex nature of it away from the user. In addition, object orientation permit re-use of code. It has the implication that designers are able to create new web designs without starting allover again, but are able to make use of a code that has already been used for another application. Java was invented to be interpreted, as opposed to being just procedural. Web designers can use functions and sub procedures, in making the impact of the code while permitting re-use of code at the same time. Java is also dynamic, indicating that code of web design written with Java is able to execute the code only at run time by altering the kind of system or by extension of objects. As a result of this Java is able to run faster utilizing minimal computer resources. Java is a very crucial tool to apply in modern day web designing, providing interactivity and simplicity, and on the other hand availing to the designer all the necessary technologies and tools (Sahni & Kumar, 2002). The development of Java Object orientation The first feature which is object orientation (‘OO’) refers to language design and method of programming. Despite there being numerous interpretations of OO, one fundamental outstanding idea is to design software so that the various kinds of data it is capable of manipulating are knitted together with relevant operations. Therefore code and data are combined into entities referred to as objects. An object can be viewed as a state (data) and bundle of behavior that is self-contained. The objective is to get things that are able to change away from the things that remain static; in many occasions, some data structure change needs a matching change to the code to the code that operates on that data, or the other way round. The separation into objects that are coherent offers a more stable base for design of software system. The goal is to make huge software projects that are easier to manage, consequently improving on quality and reducing the number of projects that have failed. Another fundamental goal of object-oriented programming is to develop more generic objects in order that software can become more reusable in between projects. For instance, a generic object ‘customer’ should have roughly the same fundamental set of behaviors between separate kinds of projects of software, particularly when these projects overlap on some basic level as they usually do in huge organizations. Reusability of software has been met with mixed practical results, with two major difficulties: lack of broad communication for opportunities for reuse, and poorly understanding the design of objects that are truly generic. Some open source communities want to help ease the problem of reuse, through providing authors with means to disseminate information concerning reusable objects generally and object libraries (Arnold, Gosling & Holmes, 2006). Platform independence The second feature, platform independence, translates to the fact that programs written in the language of Java have to run similarly on diverse hardware. A person should be able to write a program only once and be able run it anywhere. This is obtained through most Java compilers by compilation of Java language code ‘halfway’ to bytecode (particularly Java bytecode)-simplified instructions of machine that is specific to the Java platform. The code is subsequently run on a virtual machine (VM), a program written in native code on the hardware playing the host that executes and interprets generic Java bytecode. Furthermore, libraries that are standardized are availed to permit access to host machines features (like networking, threading and graphics) in ways that are unified. It is important to note that, despite there being an explicit stage of compiling, at some point; the bytecode of Java is converted or interpreted to machine instructions that are native by means of JIT compiler. There are in existence Java compilers implementations that compile to native object code, like GCJ, removing the intermediate stage of bytecode, but the compilers output can only be run on a single architecture (Hall & Brown, 2001). Sun’s license of Java emphasizes that all implementations must be compatible. This precipitated a legal battle with Microsoft after Sun held that the implementation by Microsoft did not support JNI and RMI interfaces and had additional platform features that were specific of their own. In reaction, Microsoft no longer ships Java with Windows, and in Windows recent versions, Internet Explorer can no longer support applets of Java in the absence of a third-party plug-in. Nevertheless, Sun and others have provided Java run-time systems at no cost for those and other versions of Windows. The first implementations of the language made use of an interpreted virtual machine to attain portability. The implementations provided programs that ran more slowly as compared to programs compiled to native executables, for example those written in C or C++, so the language suffered a reputation as a result of poor performance. More recent implementations of JVM result into programs that run relatively faster than before, utilizing techniques that are multiple. The initial technique is to simply directly into native code like compiler that is more traditional, entirely skipping bytecodes. This consequently obtains performance that is good, but at the expense of being portable. Just-In-Time compilation (JIT) TRANSLATES THE Java bytecodes into native code at the time that the program is being run which result in a program that executes at a faster rate than interpreted code and more so incurs compilation overhead during the time of execution. Sophisticated VMs make use of dynamic recompilation, in which the VM can is able to analyze the behavior of the program that is running and in a selective manner recompile and optimize crucial parts of the program. Recompilation that is dynamic can obtain optimizations superior to static compilation owing to the fact that the dynamic compiler can base optimizations on knowledge concerning the environment of runtime and set of classes that are loaded (Simmons, 2007). Dynamic recompilation and JIT compilation permit Java programs to take advantage of the speed of native code without portability loss. Garbage collection in Java is virtually invisible and built-in to the developer. Developers may have no idea when the time when garbage collection will occur as it is not mandatory to correlate with any actions being performed explicitly by the code which they write. The syntax used in Java is to a great extent derived from C+=. However, as opposed to C++,which combines syntax for generic, object-oriented and structured programming, Java was build from the ground up to be virtually object-oriented fully: almost everything in Java is an object save for atomic data-types and everything is written within a class. Java applets are programs which are embedded in other applications, typically in a Web page in a Web browser. References Barclay K A. & Savage J. (2007). Groovy programming: an introduction for Java developers. Burlington: Morgan Kaufmann. Liang Y. D. (2007). Introduction to Java Programming. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Simmons J. (2007). Java Programming. New York: Global Media, Gewei Y. (2011). High Frequency Trading Models + Website. 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