The Java Story

Abstract

This chapter introduces Java by describing how it has become a mature and popular language that is used across the world for all kinds of applications. It explains why to program successfully in Java it is necessary to understand object-oriented concepts and then apply them to Java objects. The chapter outlines how Java’s rich syntax and wide-ranging APIs mean that it can be used for all kinds of programming, from writing a command line utility to building a distributed client-server system or a complex multithreaded real-time system. It describes the history of Java and how it has matured into a major programming language supporting many aspects of the current software industry. It concludes by discussing how, despite becoming to some extent a legacy language, Java will continue to evolve and be providing programmers with the tools for coding a host of applications in all kinds of contexts for many years to come. It also explains how Java’s influence is such that a knowledge of Java can be extremely useful in learning the new generations of languages that have followed it.