Introduction To Java Tutorial:
The java programming language was first introuduced by the company SUN Microsystems Inc. in 1995.
The most common Java programs are applications and applets.
Applications are stand-alone programs while applets are small applications that run in browsers that are java enabled, these applets are embeded in html code and execuded in the java runtime environment of the browser on the clients machine.
Applets have strict security limitations as then run on client machines on the internet, the security prevents applets from getting access to local machines.
Why use Java?
All of the tools you need to start programming in Java are widely available on the Web for free.
Java comes with a large library of ready made classes and objects.
Java is an object orientated platform independent programming language, when we say platform independent we mean that your application can run on any platform (nt / unix etc) once you have a JRE (Java Runtime Environment) available.
The JRE is usually bundled in the JDK. This has major benefits over other programming languages such as C where you have to adapt your code depending on your platform.
Java Development:
To develop applications in java you need to download the Java Development Kit (JDK). The devlopment kit is also known as (J2SE Java 2 Platform Standard Edition) with the development kit you can compile and execute applications.
The J2SE is a package made up of both the JRE and JDK.
The JRE provides the Java APIs, Java Virtual Machine (HotSpot VM), and other components necessary to run applets and applications.
The JDK contains everything that is in the JRE, plus tools such as the compilers and debuggers necessary for developing applets and applications.
Java as a package is divided into 3 core areas
