Java Software Development

Java is an ideal programming language for developing cross platform applications for a network environment. Java was developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and Java 1.0 was released in 1995. Gosling adopted a syntax similar to C/C++. Since then, a substantial network of developers has developed around the world.

Support exists for many platforms and classes of computing devices with a unified Graphical User Interface (GUI). Support exists for network applications, desktop applications, mobile devices, wireless devices, and world wide web applications. Desktop support exists for the various versions of Windows, Apple, and Unix operating systems. Java makes use of an open architecture, making use of features and applications developed by independent corporate and individual developers around the world. A large portion of Java's source code has been released under free software/open source distribution terms.

The Java syntax is very similar to the syntax of C/C++, which has a huge network of developers around the world, which enables migration from the C/C++ development platform to the Java development platform easier. Instead of compiling to a native machine language, like most high level languages, the Java compiler compiles to a bytecode, which is translated by a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) to the platform specific processor's machine language. JVMs have been developed for most of the most popular computing platforms in existence which requires a program to be compiles a version specifically for each platform. This Java strategy allows the compiled version of the source code to be ported to other platforms unlike compile versions of C/C++ and most high level languages. However, there is a performance penalty in having the intermediate JVM layer. As processor's become faster and faster such performance penalties may be difficult to detect when encountering delays caused by input and output (I/O) especially when that I/O is on the order of hundreds of milliseconds, which is typical in a network or internet environment.

Today, the enormous network of developers around the world are constantly enhancing the Java development platform with new features which automate common development platforms and requirements, thus accelerating the development of new and more useful Java applications which operate in a platform independent environment.