A Little More Java History of Java

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A Little More JavaHistory of Java

• Based on lectures by Walter Makovoz, Ph.D.

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History of Java

• 1990
• Group of disgruntled engineers and programmers
  and Sun is created
• James Gosling
• Master programmer who create the Java Language
• Partick Naughton
• Designed the visual interfaces used to promote
  the Java environment
• Sun names this team Green

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History of Java

• Green Team Application
• Consumer Electronics Single Controller
• Programming a household thermostat
• Coordinating a VCR and TV
• 1991
• Behind the Green Door document
• Proposed a distributed, a network of totally
  dissimilar devices, using bytestreams to
  communicate with the controller.
• Would be interpretable by toasters, VCRs, and
  house alarms.

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History of Java

• Initial steps
• Gosling had been trying to implement the
  environment by extending the C language.
• C could not meet his needs.
• Reasons
• Direct memory management
• Fragile relationships among the components of C
  program
• C does not enforce object-oriented programming.
  
• Gosling invented a new language.

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History of Java

• Features of the new language
• Memory management is out of the hands of the
  application programmer by eliminating pointers
  and address arithmetic entirely.
• Greatly enhances the robustness of the new
  environment.
• New language resolves references among classes at
  runtime instead of compile-time
• A superclass could be changed without adversely
  affecting the software that uses it.

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History of Java

• Oak Language
• Naughton developed visual representation
  interface for the new language
• The user could open a cartoon TV Guide
• Select a movie
• Perform various operations on the VCR
• Gosling got the animation working in this new
  language, which he called Oak, after tree outside
  his office windows.

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History of Java

• 1993
• Green Team is incorporated as
• FirstPerson, Inc. (subsidiary of Sun)
• Looking to license technology
• Cellular phone
• Industrial automation systems
• Interactive television
• CD-ROMs
• Commercial online services
• Each time the deal fell through

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History of Java

• 1994
• Bill Joy and Eric Schmidt marry Oak and the Net
• Oak is adapted for the Internet use
• Oak is renamed to Java
• Naughton develops a Web browser with a built-in
  Java interpreter and names it HotJava.

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Java Development Tools

• Sun JDK 1.1
• Visual J 1.1a
• Visual Café Pro 1.1

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Sun JDK 1.1

• When Sun released its JDK 1.1 this (including a
  new version of Java, also 1.1), it introduced a
  number of new features, many of which focus on
  component development and user interfaces.
• The new component architecture, called JavaBeans,
  is essentially an interface that lets Java-based
  components communicate with one another. It's
  similar to Microsoft's ActiveX technology, but
  JavaBeans can run wherever Java 1.1 runs.
• This component model was one of the last missing
  pieces in Java.
• Although Java is an object-oriented language,
  without a standard to help developers write
  interoperable objects there was no way to build
  up libraries of useful Java components, the way
  Windows developers have created thousands of
  ActiveX components.

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Sun JDK 1.1

• Creating user interfaces in Java means using a
  set of classes, or object descriptions, called
  the Abstract Windowing Toolkit.
• With Java 1.1, Sun has introduced a new event
  model for the AWT called delegation.
• In simple terms, delegation lets your code
  separate the user-interface components from the
  logic that drives the interface.
• That makes it easier to change the interface
  without changing the logic, and vice versa.
• For now, only Sun's JDK supports all the Java 1.1
  features.
• But both Symantec and Microsoft are rushing to
  incorporate 1.1 features into the Java tools
  these two companies have created.

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Sun JDK 1.1

• In today's world of fancy graphical development
  environments, a command-line Java compiler seems
  almost archaic.
• But since most people still build Web pages with
  text editors like NotePad or BBEdit, Sun's JDK
  fits right in. And best of all, it's free.
• Free doesn't mean without cost, however.
• For one thing, the JDK doesn't come with an
  installation program.
• If you want a tool that installs itself and
  automatically sets up the necessary environment
  variables, you'll have to look elsewhere.
• With the JDK, it's up to you to manually insert
  the appropriate classpath variable into your
  autoexec.bat file.
• Nor does the JDK's compiler, Javac, support the
  notion of a project, a group of files to be
  treated as one applet.

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Sun JDK 1.1

• Once you get over the installation hurdle, the
  JDK 1.1.1 offers an unmatched level of Java power
  and functionality.
• Only the JDK currently implements the landmark
  1.1 version of the Java language, which adds a
  slew of critical functions, including the new
  JavaBeans component model and improvements to the
  Abstract Windowing Toolkit.
• The AWT is one of the reasons Java works--it
  provides a cross-platform, graphical class
  library that lets you write user interfaces to
  run on any Java platform.
• But it has some limitations, both in performance
  and in design.
• To speed the AWT's performance on Windows
  platforms, the JDK boasts new (dynamic link
  libraries) that support the AWT using the native
  Win 32 instead of going through the Microsoft
  Foundation Classes.
• And on the design front, Sun has introduced a new
  event model called delegation, which lets Java
  programmers write apps that more cleanly separate
  the interface from the behind-the-scenes logic.

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Traditional Programs
Binary File (PC)
Code
Compiler(PC)
Binary File (Mac)
Compiler(Mac)
Binary File (Unix)
Compiler(Unix)
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Java Programs
Java Interpreter (PC)
Code
Java Bytecode
Java Interpreter(Mac)
Java Interpreter(Unix)
Java Compiler
(Platform Independent)
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JDK Configuration

• Add to autoexec.bat
• PATH C\WINDOWSC\JDK1.1\BIN
• Add a line
• SET CLASSPATHC\TECHY-1\JDK1.1\lib\classes.zip,
  .