Java Programming: Introduction
Tags: java, programming, javascript, tutorial
Published: 2024-05-21 20:34:21

In the world of programming, Java is a name you can't ignore. It's one of the most popular programming languages in computer science and IT history. If you're a student in this field, Java is likely on your syllabus. Today, I'll give you a quick rundown of Java.

## History
Java, created in 1995 by James Gosling and his team at Sun Microsystems (now part of Oracle Corporation), has become an essential part of modern software development. Its design focuses on simplicity, portability, and reliability, making it a popular choice for developing everything from mobile applications to large-scale enterprise systems. Now, Java is maintained by the Oracle Corporation.


![Official Logo of Java](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/gtu40cwbygiw97ixg2m2.png)

## Features of Java

- **Object Oriented**: Java is a completely object-oriented programming language. So, it focuses on modularity and maintainability. Everything in Java is an object. In my honest opinion, Java is perfect for object-oriented programming.

- **Cross Platform**: Java is platform independent, which means you can write Java code once and it can be run on any device. Java code compiles to byte code that can be run on Java Virtual Machine (JVM) which is available on almost any operating system.

- **Secure**: Java is considered a secure language. It has a garbage collector that manages the memory so you can focus more on writing the actual code without worrying about memory management. The access modifiers in the object-oriented paradigms make the language more secure.

- **Multithreading**: Java supports multi-threading to utilize the modern multi-core CPUs. That means we can utilize the multi-core processors to make high-performance software.


## What is Java used for?

Java is widely used in the IT sector. From Android apps to the enterprise world java is used by many tech giants. The major use cases of Java are:

- **Android apps**: Java is the official language of Android to develop apps. You can make native Android applications using Java.

- **Web Applications**: Java is a great language for building apps that run on the web. Spring framework is the most popular web framework for Java. Spring gives you the ultimate power to develop web apps, REST API, and much more. Hibernate is an Object Relational Mapping (ORM) tool that makes the database operation easy and object-oriented way.

- **Desktop Applications**: Java can be used for developing cross-platform desktop applications. There are popular libraries like Swing and JavaFX to build GUI applications.

## Which companies are using Java?
The stable and robust architecture of Java became the choice of many tech giants to build their large-scale products. Java is used by famous companies such as Google, Amazon, Uber, Airbnb, Pinterest, Netflix, and Instagram. Java is still popular among Enterprises.

## Is Java bad?

There are a lot of myths about Java. Java is fast, robust, and secure. Java is faster than many other languages like Python and JavaScript. Many CPU-intensive software are built upon Java. It might difficult to learn Java than other languages because of its boilerplate codes but that doesn't mean Java is a bad choice.

## Some final words
Java is well-liked because it has a solid foundation, a wide range of tools, and a supportive community. It's used for all kinds of applications. If you want to explore more on software design and architecture, I think Java will be the standard choice.