Java: The Beginning

The Java programming language was first introduced by Sun Microsystems in 1995 (Java version 1.0).  The language actually pre-dates 1995, all the way back to 1991 when the language was called "Oak". 

 The first apparent benefits of the language was "Write Once, Run Anywhere" (WORA) and Java Applets.  Until Java's WORA concept, most languages were written and compiled to be deployed on one operating system.

It was a very important concept for developers to be able to write code once and have that code run on a variety of operating systems such as Windows, Linux, different flavors of Unix, and even Apple platforms.  The driving force behind multi-platform development / deployment is how Java interacts with the underlying operating system.

Java applications are compiled into Java byte-code, which in turn is executed inside a Java Virtual Machine (JVM).  It is the JVM's responsibility to provide the bridge from Java byte-code to the underlying operating system.  Each supported operating system (OS) / software platform has it's own JVM that knows how to natively talk to the underlying OS.  It is this architecture that is the true power of the WORA promise of Java.

The past 15 years have spawned a giant inventory of Java applications, especially with the introduction of Java Enterprise Edition (J2EE) in 1999.

This is a very quick and short history of the Java platform.  For a more comprehensive history of Java, visit the Java Wikipedia site and the Java History Timeline.