History and Evolution of Java
Java is invented by James Gosling, Patrick Naughton, Chris Warth, Ed Frank, and Mike Sheridan at Sun Microsystems, Inc. in 1991. Java is related to C++, which is inherited from the language C. The characters of Java is inherited from C and C++ language. It took approx. Eighteen months to develop the first working version. It was first named as “Oak” but was renamed as “Java” in 1995. It is publicly announced in the spring of 1995.
The basic idea behind creating this language is to create a platform-independent language that is used to develop software for consumer electronic devices such as microwave ovens, remote controls, etc. Initially, it was not designed for Internet applications.
Other languages have the problem that they are designed to compile the code for a specific platform. Let us take the example of C++, it is possible to compile C++ code for any processor but to do so it requires a full C++ compiler targeted for that particular processor and platform. That makes it expensive and time-consuming. To overcome this, Gosling and others started working on a portable and platform-independent language, this leads to the creation of Java.
Java had an extreme effect on the Internet by the innovation of a new type of networked program called the Applet. An applet is a Java program that is designed to be transmitted over the internet and executed by the web browser that is Java-compatible. Applets are the small program that is used to display data provided by the server, handle user input, provide a simple function such as calculator etc.
Java solves the Security and the portability issue of the other language that is being used. The key that allows doing so is the Bytecode. Bytecode is a highly optimized set of instruction that is designed to be executed by the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). Java programs are executed by the JVM also helps to make Java a secure programming g language because the JVM contains the application and prevents it from affecting the external systems.
Evolution of Java:
| Version | Release Date | Features |
| JDK Beta | 1995 | -- |
| JDK 1.0 | January 1996 | This is the first stable version. |
| JDK 1.1 | February 1997 | In this version, added many new library elements, redefined the way of handling events, and reconfigured most of the libraries of 1.0 and deprecated some features defined by 1.0. Added inner class, JavaBeans, JDBC, RMI, JIT (Just In time) compiler. |
| J2SE 1.2 | December 1998 | Added support for many features, such as Swing and Collection Framework. The methods suspend(), resume() and stop() of Thread class were deprecated. |
| J2SE 1.3 | May 2000 | A very small improvement, as it just improved the development environment. |
| J2SE 1.4 | February 2002 | It added some upgrades such as the new keyword assert, chained exception and a channel-based I/O subsystem. Also added some feature to the collection framework and the Networking classes. |
| J2SE 5.0 | September 2004 | The significant new features added to this version are – Generics, Annotation, Autoboxing and Auto-unboxing, Enumeration, for-each, variable-length argument, Static import, Formatted I/O, Concurrency utilities. |
| Java SE 6 | December 2006 | In this version the API libraries and several new packages got enhanced and offered improvements to the run time. It supports JDBC 4.0. |
| Java SE 7 | July 2011 | Added JVM support for dynamic language, String in the switch, Automatic resource management in try-statement, support for underscore in integers, binary integer literals etc… |
| Java SE 8 | March 2014 | Added Date and time API, Repeating annotation, JavaFX. |
| Java SE 9 | September 2017 | Added Java platform module system update, jshell, XML Catalog, jlink, and the JavaDB was removed from JDK |
| Java SE 10 | March 2018 | Added features are local variable type interface, Application class data sharing, Garbage collector interface, etc… |
| Java SE 11 | September 2018 | Feature added: Dynamic class file loader, HTTP client, and Transport layer security. JavaFX, Java EE, and CORBA modules have been removed from JDK. |
| Java SE 12 | March 2019 | Added Microbenchmark Suite, JVM Constant API, One AArch64 Port, Default CDS Archives etc. |