Java Essay Research Paper Final Term PaperThe

Java Essay, Research Paper

Final Term Paper

The Java Revolution

Java s new-age design is leading the object-oriented programming language design revolution; allowing even greater portability, state of the art security measures, and more extensive reusability. First, a brief description of what makes a programming language object-oriented so that its importance can be realized. Object oriented programming (OOP) emphasizes data, its storage, and its necessity, instead of algorithm usage to solve problems. Object oriented programming involves two closely related, yet separate parts: classes and objects. A class is a specification that describes a new object type, acting as templates defining what an object can store and how it will behave. An object is an instance of the class created by the parameters defined in the class specification. The object oriented programming approach to program design is to first design classes that will accurately represent those things with which the program deals, then use instances of those classes, objects, to complete the task at hand. An example may be designing a class Account, which contains an ID, password and account balance. The object would be a specific instance, for example, account 451. OOP has been fundamentally praised for its ability to create easily reusable code, whose functionality can grow through the inheritance, and derivation of new classes from old ones. In addition, polymorphism allows the programmer to create multiple definitions for operators and functions. For instance, polymorphism would allow a programmer to define the addition of two Account objects to represent the sum of their account balances. Object orientated programming s main innovated improvements in programming design are greatest accented by the Java programming language.

Java is a new programming language developed by Sun Microsystems that is well liked, and largely accepted world round. Although Java is widely recognized, few are fully aware of its potential, and even less are aware of its purpose. It certainly has the prospect of becoming a part of our everyday lives, existing in our mobile phones, televisions, Internet browsers, and all aspects of our future electronic communication devices. Still in its infancy, Java has yet to fulfill its intended purpose of being an embedded language for consumer electronics. Its reusability and portability has proved it to be an ideal interface for the Internet. In 1996, Netscape added Java support to its evolving web browser, Netscape Navigator. This allowed applets to be included in web page downloads, which lead to advancements from the world of static text. This directs us to the first topic proving Java to be the wave of the future.

Java s use of applets allows an independence to occur between the running of the Java application, and the actual machine that is running it. The applet is run in a Java-compatible browser, which creates a virtual machine interface to the local machine. An applet is similar to an application, but it will not run in a stand-alone environment. An applet must adhere to a certain set of conventions that enables it to run within a Java-compatible browser. The technology is still evolving and most Java applications are still relatively simple animations, or user interactions. The future of Java lies closely correlated to its original design purpose. It will lead the revolution of most electronics having embedded software that will all interact with each other. The portability of Java fills the gap that a lack of standard operating protocols has created. One of the biggest benefits of Java is the fact that it is machine independent. Java is compiled into a machine independent byte code. The byte code is then interpreted by what is referred to as a virtual machine running on the host computer, hence implementing a run-time environment. If Java were just another programming language, the industry would have greeted its introduction with a minimal amount of interest. What makes Java intriguing is that it is also a runtime environment embodied in a virtual machine. It sits, in essence, between the Java program and the machine it is running on, offering the program an abstract computer that executes the Java code and guarantees certain behaviors regardless of the underlying hardware or software platform. Java compilers thus turn Java programs not into a language for a particular machine but into a platform-neutral byte code that the machine-specific virtual machine interprets on the fly. A Java compiler can be best described as a translator that interprets a language to a common ground in a similar fashion to a United Nations translator translating all languages to English. Since English is known around the world, specific translators, like the virtual machine, are able to translate English into the specific language for their country. With so many different computers connected to the Internet, platform independence is necessary. If the java virtual machine can create the necessary interface between the operating systems, whether it is a coffee maker or a mainframe computer, all these electronic devices can easily communicate with one another, which can make collaboration available. Imagine if all that one had to do was to provide a meetings date, time, and location into Outlook Calendar (or a similar program), and could be confident that the following certain acti