Liesel's Java Pages:

Wow! I’ve discovered something Really Neat... Java!

Sure I have known about the existence of Java for a long time and I have even used a few lines of embedded Java in web pages, but that was really the extent of it. Most of what I knew came form comments others made and brief articles I had read. I had a Java book, but it went mostly unread.

That’s All Changed and I am here to tell you I was missing out on some Great Stuff! Here, try this, where did Java come from, who invented it? Sun Microsystems! You may recognize the name as being a well respected provider of high end computer work stations and servers. Now, what I write in these pages on Java is strictly my opinion and/or interpretation of what I’ve read in Sun documentation. So please don’t take my word as any sort of authority. If you find yourself interested in Java, as I am, I encourage you to visit the Sun Java web site.

Several years ago as workstations started to become popular and networks started to connect them, Sun invented something called Network File System (NFS). The idea was that files on any computer in the network would be equally accessible to all computers. In such networks users started running programs on computers that were someplace else and saving/accessing files that were someplace else with the same ease they would if everything was on the computer at their desk. I believe, that at the time Sun made it possible for their competitors to participate in NFS so users could gain the benefit of having all their computer resources work together in one network. Their idea seemed to be that if they made computers easier to use they would sell more themselves since they saw their models as superior to the competition.

Java seems to be an extension of the same philosophy. The idea is that you write a program for a given application once and then you are free to run it on any computer that has a Java run time environment on it. Indeed Sun has enabled other computer makers to use Java with their machines. In some cases Sun has developed run time environments for systems that weren’t otherwise able to run Java. That’s a major step ahead since moving a program from one computer to another otherwise is very expensive and time consuming. This mode of operation (write once - run anywhere) fit in nicely with the need for additional functionality that was building in the rapidly growing internet. By incorporating Java run time environments into web browsers and putting Java programs in web pages a new level of function could be brought to users regardless of the kind of computer or operating system the user surfs the net with. Again I think Sun’s idea is that if they enable people to run programs on the computer of their choice that many will chose to use Sun computers. As it turns out Java programs come in two main forms applets and applications. What’s the difference? An applet runs in a web browser environment. An application is a program that runs on your computer without your browser.

Is Java the place you should start if you’ve never programmed before? I think that depends on you. Java is very well documented and the tutorial is excellent. On the other hand, that comes from an experienced programmer; so I tend to take some things for granted about how easy things are. There are certainly worse languages you could start with. No, I won’t name any. If you have programming experience I think you’ll be very pleased with how clean Java is compared with some of the currently popular languages.

Applets		Applications		Toys		java.sun.com

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