History

In 1991, a group of Sun Microsystems engineers led by Patrick Naughton and James Gosling wanted to design a programming language for consumer devices such as cable TV box. Because these devices do not have a lot of memory, language must be small and contain tough code. Also different manufacturers have different processor, then the language should be processor independent. The project was given the code name "Green".

The need for flexibility, small, wiry and platform-neutral code led the team to learn the implementation Pascal ever attempted. Niklaus Wirth, Pascal language creator have designed a portable language that generates intermediate code for a hypothetical machine. This machine is often called a Virtual Machine. This code can then be used on any machine that has the interpreter. The Green Project uses virtual machine to address the major issues of neutral on the machine architecture.

Because the people in The Green Project based on C++ rather than Pascal, then the syntax mostly taken from C++, as well as adopting object oriented and not procedural. In the beginning, the language created named "Oak" by James Gosling who got inspiration from an oak tree growing in front of the window in his room at his office. But because the name of Oak itself is the name of an existing programming language that has been there before (already registered with the trademark), then SUN rename it with "Java". The name of Java is chosen by its founder, James Gosling, because he likes coffee directly milled from a milling machine very much, where this type of coffee comes from Java Island in Indonesia.

The Java programming language is born of The Green Project, which runs for 18 months, from early 1991 until the summer of 1992.

Around the summer of 1992, the project produced the first program, which is intended as a hardware controller with touch screen technology. This new technology named "*7" (Star Seven). Star Seven is very smart remote control. Because the market is still not interested in intelligent consumer products, then The Green Project must find other markets of the technology created. At the same time, the implementation of the WWW and the Internet is experiencing rapid development. On the other hand, members of The Green Project also realized that Java can be used in Internet programming, so the application of technology which in turn lead into a role on the web.

At this time span was also determined the use of the Internet as a medium that bridges work and ideas between them. In the early 1990s, the Internet is still a stub, which is used only in academic circles and the military. They made Mosaic browser as an initial basis for making the first browser, called Java Web Runner. In the first release development, the Web Runner renamed Hot Java. In about March 1995, for the first time the Java source code version 1.0a2 opened.

Java has accommodated almost all important features of programming languages ​​that existed since the development of modern computing:

1. From SIMULA, the language in the 65's, the language most used effects at Java and C++. From this language adopted basic formations of object-oriented programming.
2. From LISP - language of the 55's. Adopted garbage collection facilities, and the ability to mimic generic list processing, although this facility rarely used.
3. From Algol - language in the '60s, has taken its control structure.
4. From C++, syntax adopted, partly semantiks and exception handling.
5. From Ada language, strongly drawn type, and exception handling.
6. From Objective C, taken the facility interface.
7. From the SmallTalk language, taken single-root hierarchie class approach, where the object is a single entity inheritance hierarchy.
8. From the Eiffel language, assertion facility which began to be implemented in most JDK 1.4

The initial version of Java in 1996 is already a release version and named Java Version 1.0. This version of Java provides standard package to be developed in the next version:

• java.lang   :  Basic elements of the class.
• java.io     :  Input and output classes, including the use of the file.
• java.util   :  Complementary class such as data structure class and calendar class.
• java.net    :  The Allocation TCP/IP class, which enables to communicate with other computers using a TCP/IP network.
• java.awt    :  The base class for applications with user interface (GUI)
• java.applet :  The base class application interface to be implemented on a web browser.

The following are major release versions of Java as of 2015, along with their release dates:

• JDK 1.0 (January 21, 1996)
• JDK 1.1 (February 19, 1997)
• J2SE 1.2 (December 8, 1998)
• J2SE 1.3 (May 8, 2000)
• J2SE 1.4 (February 6, 2002)
• J2SE 5.0 (September 30, 2004)
• Java SE 6 (December 11, 2006)
• Java SE 7 (July 28, 2011)
• Java SE 8 (March 18, 2014)

Today, Java has been used in many ways and has proved its existence in the 21st century. Java is used in various types of applications such as embedded applications, financial applications, desktop, flight simulation, image processing, games, distributed enterprise application, and still many more.