Introduction to Java Programming

Java is a general purpose programming language. It is a general purpose high level, object-oriented language.

Java has grown into a larger platform over a period. Key feature of Java is "write one, run anywhere", platform independent ability. This is a tutorial trail will help you to learn Java and is intended for beginners and intermediate skilled programmers.

Key Characteristics of Java

• Platform independence
• Object oriented
• Automatic memory management
• Security
• Multi-threading and high performance.

Java Hello World Example

public class HelloWorld {
public static void main(String args[]) {
	System.out.println("Hello World!");
}
}

Compiled and Interpreted

Java is both compiled and interpreted.Compilation is the first step that translates the Java source code to binary code. This is an intermediate representation of the Java program and will serve as input to the interpretation process. This Java byte code can be used on any platform without making changes to it. This property is called platform independence.  Interpretation converts the byte code into low level machine instructions.

Java Applications

Java applications are of the following different flavor:

1. Desktop based thick client applications. Java applications that uses AWT and Swing as the user interface.
2. Web applications, these are thin client applications. Deployed in an application server and presented to user via a web browser.
3. Enterprise applications, these are distributed applications that follows a Java enterprise specification.
4. Mobile applications, these are Java micro applications that runs on mobile devices.