Features of Java Programming Language

Simple :

Java is Easy to write and more readable and eye catching.

Java has a concise, cohesive set of features that makes it easy to learn and use.
Most of the concepts are drew from C++ thus making Java learning simpler.

Secure :

Java program cannot harm other system thus making it secure.

Java provides a secure means of creating Internet applications.
Java provides secure way to access web applications.

Portable :

Java programs can execute in any environment for which there is a Java run-time
system.(JVM)
Java programs can be run on any platform (Linux,Window,Mac)
Java programs can be transferred over world wide web (e.g applets)

Object-oriented :

Java programming is object-oriented programming language.

Like C++ java provides most of the object oriented features.
Java is pure OOP. Language. (while C++ is semi object oriented)

Robust :

Java encourages error-free programming by being strictly typed and performing run-time
checks.

Multithreaded :

Java provides integrated support for multithreaded programming.

Architecture-neutral :

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 Java is not tied to a specific machine or operating system architecture.
Machine Independent i.e Java is independent of hardware .

Interpreted :

Java supports cross-platform code through the use of Java bytecode.

Bytecode can be interpreted on any platform by JVM.

High performance :

Bytecodes are highly optimized.

JVM can executed them much faster .

Distributed :

Java was designed with the distributed environment.

Java can be transmit,run over internet.

Dynamic :

Java programs carry with them substantial amounts of run-time type information that is used
to verify and resolve accesses to objects at run time.

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1) What is Java ?
Java is a platform-independent programming language used to create secure and robust
application that may run on a single computer or may be distributed among servers and clients
over a network.
Java features such as platform-independency and portability ensure that while developing
Java EE enterprise applications, you do not face the problems related to hardware , network , and
the operating system.

2) History of Java ?
Java was started as a project called "Oak" by James Gosling in June 1991. Gosling's goals
were to implement a virtual machine and a language that had a familiar C like notation but with
greater uniformity and simplicity than C/C++.
The First publication of Java 1.0 was released by Sun Microsystems in 1995. It made the
promise of "Write Once, Run Anywhere", with free runtimes on popular platforms.
In 2006-2007 Sun released java as open source and and plateform independent software.
Over time new enhanced versions of Java have been released. The current version of Java is
Java 1.7 which is also known as Java 7.

3) What is JVM (Java Virtual Machine) & JRE( Java Run time Environment)?
The Java virtual machine (JVM) is a software implementation of a computer that executes
programs like a real machine.
The Java virtual machine is written specifically for a specific operating system, e.g. for
Linux a special implementation is required as well as for Windows.
Java programs are compiled by the Java compiler into bytecode. The Java virtual machine
interprets this bytecode and executes the Java program.
The Java runtime environment (JRE) consists of the JVM and the Java class libraries and
contains the necessary functionality to start Java programs.
The JDK contains in addition the development tools necessary to create Java programs. The
JDK consists therefore of a Java compiler, the Java virtual machine, and the Java class libraries.

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4) Features of Java ? Characteristics of Java ?
The characteristics and features of java are as follows.

1) Simple

Java is a simple language because of its various features, Java Doesn?t Support Pointers ,
Operator Overloading etc. It doesn?t require unreferenced object because java support automatic
garbage collection.
Java provides bug free system due to the strong memory management.

2) Object-Oriented

Object-Oriented Programming Language (OOPs) is the methodology which provides

software development and maintenance by using object state, behavior, and properties.
Object Oriented Programming Language must have the following characteristics.

1)Encapsulation 2)Polymorphism 3)Inheritance 4)Abstraction

As the languages like Objective C, C++ fulfills the above four characteristics yet they are
not fully object oriented languages because they are structured as well as object oriented
languages.
In java everything is an Object. Java can be easily extended since it is based on the Object
model

3) Secure

Java is Secure Language because of its many features it enables to develop virus-free,
tamper-free systems. Authentication techniques are based on public-key encryption. Java does
not support pointer explicitly for the memory.
All Program Run under the sandbox.

4) Robust

Java was created as a strongly typed language. Data type issues and problems are resolved at
compile-time, and implicit casts of a variable from one type to another are not allowed.
Memory management has been simplified java in two ways. First Java does not support
direct pointer manipulation or arithmetic. This make it possible for a java program to overwrite
memory or corrupt data.
Second , Java uses runtime garbage collection instead of instead of freeing of memory. In
languages like c++, it Is necessary to delete or free memory once the program has finished with
it.

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5) Platform-independent.

Java Language is platform-independent due to its hardware and software environment. Java
code can be run on multiple platforms e.g. windows, Linux, sun Solaris, Mac/Os etc. Java code is
compiled by the compiler and converted into byte code. This byte code is a platform independent
code because it can be run on multiple platforms i.e. Write Once and Run Anywhere(WORA).
6) Architecture neutral

It is not easy to write an application that can be used on Windows , UNIX and a Macintosh.
And its getting more complicated with the move of windows to non Intel CPU architectures.
Java takes a different approach. Because the Java compiler creates byte code instructions
that are subsequently interpreted by the java interpreter, architecture neutrality is achieved in the
implementation of the java interpreter for each new architecture.

7) Portable

Java code is portable. It was an important design goal of Java that it be portable so that as
new architectures(due to hardware, operating system, or both) are developed, the java
environment could be ported to them.
In java, all primitive types(integers, longs, floats, doubles, and so on) are of defined sizes,
regardless of the machine or operating system on which the program is run. This is in direct
contrast to languages like C and C++ that leave the sized of primitive types up to the compiler
and developer.
Additionally, Java is portable because the compiler itself is written in Java.

8) Dynamic

Because it is interpreted , Java is an extremely dynamic language, At runtime, the java

environment can extends itself by linking in classes that may be located on remote servers on a
network(for example, the internet)
At runtime, the java interpreter performs name resolution while linking in the necessary
classes. The Java interpreter is also responsible for determining the placement of object in
memory. These two features of the Java interpreter solve the problem of changing the definition
of a class used by other classes.

9) Interpreted

We all know that Java is an interpreted language as well. With an interpreted language such
as Java, programs run directly from the source code.
The interpreter program reads the source code and translates it on the fly into computations.
Thus, Java as an interpreted language depends on an interpreter program.
The versatility of being platform independent makes Java to outshine from other languages.
The source code to be written and distributed is platform independent.
Another advantage of Java as an interpreted language is its error debugging quality. Due to
this any error occurring in the program gets traced. This is how it is different to work with Java.

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10) High performance

For all but the simplest or most infrequently used applications, performance is always a
consideration for most applications, including graphics-intensive ones such as are commonly
found on the world wide web, the performance of java is more than adequate.

11) Multithreaded

Writing a computer program that only does a single thing at a time is an artificial constraint
that we?ve lived with in most programming languages. With java, we no longer have to live with
this limitation. Support for multiple, synchronized threads is built directly into the Java language
and runtime environment.
Synchronized threads are extremely useful in creating distributed, network-aware
applications. Such as application may be communicating with a remote server in one thread
while interacting with a user in a different thread.
12) Distributed.

Java facilitates the building of distributed application by a collection of classes for use in
networked applications. By using java?s URL (Uniform Resource Locator) class, an application
can easily access a remote server. Classes also are provided for establishing socket-level
connections.

First Program

When we consider a Java program it can be defined as a collection of objects that

communicate via invoking each others methods. Let us now briefly look into what do class,
object, methods and instance variables mean.
Object - Objects have states and behaviors. Example: A dog has states-color, name,
breed as well as behaviors -wagging, barking, eating. An object is an instance of a class.
Class - A class can be defined as a template/ blue print that describe the behaviors/states
that object of its type support.
Methods - A method is basically a behavior. A class can contain many methods. It is in
methods where the logics are written, data is manipulated and all the actions are executed.
Instance Variables - Each object has its unique set of instance variables. An object's
state is created by the values assigned to these instance variables

First Java Program:

Let us look at a simple code that would print the words Simple Test Promgram.

public class SimpleProgram {

public static void main(String []args) {

System.out.println("Simple Test Program");
}

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}

Lets look at how to save the file, compile and run the program. Please follow the steps given
below:
Open notepad and add the code as above.
Save the file as : SimpleProgram.java.
Open a command prompt window and go o the directory where you saved the class.
Assume its D:\.
Type ' javac SimpleProgram.java ' and press enter to compile your code. If there are no
errors in your code the command prompt will take you to the next line.( Assumption : The path
variable is set).
Now type ' java SimpleProgram' to run your program.
You will be able to see ' Simple Test Program ' printed on the window.
C : > javac SimpleProgram.java
C : > java SimpleProgram
Simple Test Program

Explain public static void main (String args[])..

The public keyword is an access specifier, which allows the programmer to control the
visibility of class members. When a class member is preceded by public, then that member may
be accessed by code outside the class in which it is declared.In this case, main( ) must be
declared as public, since it must be called by code outside of its class when the program is
started. The keyword staticallows main( ) to be called without having to instantiate a particular
instance of the class. This is necessary since main( ) is called by the Java interpreter before any
objects are made. The keyword void simply tells the compiler that main( ) does not return a
value. As you will see, methods may also return values.
As stated, main( ) is the method called when a Java application begins. Keep in mind that Java is
case-sensitive. Thus, Main is different from main. It is important to understand that the Java
compiler will compile classes that do not contain a main( ) method. But the Java interpreter has
no way to run these classes. So, if you had typed Main instead of main, the compiler would still
compile your program. However, the Java interpreter would report an error because it would be
unable to find the main( ) method.
Any information that you need to pass to a method is received by variables specified within the
set of parentheses that follow the name of the method. These variables are called parameters. If
there are no parameters required for a given method, you still need to include the empty
parentheses. In main( ), there is only one parameter, albeit a complicated one. String args[
] declares a parameter named args, which is an array of instances of the class String. Objects of
type String store character strings. In this case, args receives any command-line arguments
present when the program is executed.

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