Introduction to Java

Java is a general purpose object oriented programming language.We can develop two types of Java programs that are:-

• Standalone applications
• Web applets

• Standalone applications:-Standalone applications are programs written in Java to carry out certain tasks on a standalone local Desktop Computer.The programs can be develop to do task on a local computer (like Calculator you use in your Operating System,Notepad can be developed in Java,Yahoo Facebook messenger etc).These Standalone application can do communication with the Internet also to do needful tasks. A good Example of Java standalone application is ThinkFree that is written in Java.It is just one example there are so many applications that are written in java and the advantage that these applications get is platform independent,means these are written once and can be run on any operating system that may be Windows,MAC,Linux etc.So the programs that we will develop in upcoming posts will be developed only once and without any change you will be able to run them on any operating system with any hardware lying below operating system.Developing a Java application involve following steps:-
• Write The source-code in a file and store that with .java extension.
• Compile the source-code file into byte code using javac compiler.(steps to install the JDK that has java compiler)
• Execute the bytecode program using java Interpreter.

• Web applets:-Java applets are small Java programs developed for internet applications .You may play online games that are mostly Java applets that run in your browser (downloaded through internet),you may notice some websites that have animations running and you interact with that animations that are all java applet programs that are written in Java.So we will see how to develop them in upcoming post.

Note:-These above types of programs types are developed using just J2SE that is Java 2 Standard Edition.Java has a wide range of other tools that are J2EE that are used to develop Enterprise applications.J2ME for mobile application development.