Java is an object-oriented programming language as well as a software platform.
Probably in this age of AI and no-code, an object-oriented programming language or software platform doesn’t excite you. But Java has ruled and is still ruling Developer communities and Enterprises for the last few decades, from its invention in the early 1990s.
Why Java? Wasn’t there something else?
When Java was invented, other programming languages like C, C++ were the go-to programming languages. C, C++ are still used, where we need full control over Memory, I/O management, etc. I mean, we want to manage all the resources ourselves in code.
But there were challenges like
- C, C++ are compiled in machine language, and for different systems with different processor architectures, code needs to be compiled separately
- With the invention of the internet, and different devices like TV, Mobile, etc., it was necessary to have a programming language that could run everywhere
- As a developer needs to write code for memory management, any issue with memory management can lead to memory leaks as well as unprivileged access to the system
Java came into the picture, keeping the syntax the same as C, C++ to make Developers’ lives easier, but with a promising, simple, and object-oriented programming language
Also, as a software platform, it provides features like Platform independence, Portability, Security, Robustness, and more to address the challenges.
You might have seen, we are emphasising Object Oriented Programming (OOP). This is called a software paradigm. We have other software paradigms, and before OOP, most programming languages were Procedural. To overcome a few limitations of Procedural languages, OOP was introduced. The main idea of OOP is, let’s imagine everything as an Object. Maybe we can have a separate article for all these software paradigms and OOP in detail.
As we learn more about Java, we will see how Java works and much more.