The Beginner’s Guide to Java and Its Components

What Is Java?

Oops…is what Java is. It is an Object-Oriented Programming Language, a set of tools that allows easy and cross-platform application development. It can be found in different devices large, and small. 

What Is Java Used for?

You can find Java in all sorts of places, to be more precise even on your wrist or in your pocket. Who knows you might be using Java on your desktop. This amazing platform has powered many popular games like Minecraft, FIFA 11, Zaz, and the list goes on. 

The essence of Java is objects and it has nailed almost all domains you can think of from banking, eCommerce store, stock market algorithm to big data. Java combined with other frameworks is equal to the robust combination. It can be run on all platforms and its free access makes it widely popular among the developers.     

Java was developed by Sun Microsystem and very much alike but simpler than C++. This write-once, run-anywhere programming language helps to build exceptionally well applications when combined with technologies like spring, J2EE, Android, and Hadoop.

People often get confused about making their minds, if Java is the right choice for the beginner? The answer is Java is a great choice for beginners as Java has a rich set of API, handles the complexity of the application easily, has strong community support, in-built Garbage collection, and many other features that make Java a secure language to learn. 

Features of Java

Java offers plenty of features, let’s have a look at the following features:

Simple — Life gets easier with Java as it removes all the complexities like pointers, operator loading, and lots more. 

Object-oriented — Java is all about objects. Each object has certain properties, state, behavior, and properties with the help of which all operations are carried out. Some of its features include inheritance, abstraction, polymorphism, etc.

Dynamic — Java is responsible for the better performance of the application. Its dynamic adaptability supports memory allocation which results in less wastage of memories and thus boosts the performance.

Portable — The beauty of java is that it is portable which means the application written for a platform can be ported to another platform like Linux, Mac, BSD, Windows without compiling it. 

Distributed — Allows users to create distributed applications, EJB and RMI are used for distribution. 

Secured — After the compilation, the code is converted into the bytecode, which makes it secured. Even it helps to prevent any activities from the untrusted sources as it runs the pointer inside the sandbox. Its bytecode verifier checks the code fragment to verify whether it is legal or illegal and many other functionalities make it secure. This is the reason you never heard about the virus attacking java, hence that is why java is considered secured.

Multithreaded — Programming with threads becomes easy as Java supports multi-threads which means you can build applications with multiple threads of activities. This results in developing highly responsive and interactive applications.  

Robust — Java is robust as its automatic garbage collection allows it to get rid of unnecessary objects, uses a strong management system, its lack of pointers avoid the security problems, and its exceptional checking mechanism makes it a viable language.

Let’s Learn About the Java Platform

Java is a platform which means it provides a platform to develop the application. It offers a group of programs that are developed and runs the program written in java language. It is an independent platform that has a compiler, execution engine, and a set of libraries. The java environment like Java Virtual Machine and Java Run-time Environment convert code into machine language. 

The bytecode makes the java platform independent. Jlink is a command-line tool that allows to link sets of modules to create run-time images. 

The link-time applies between compile time and run time. It simplifies and reduces the size of deployment. Java Dependency Analysis Tool (jdep) is a command tool that processes Java bytecode i.e. .class files or JARs that contain them. Jdep can also tell which JDK-internal APIs the project is using. With the help of this tool, you can examine various types of dependency graphs.  

Components of Java

It becomes essential to know about the components of Java to learn about Java. These components help to develop different java solutions efficiently. After writing the program in Java, it needs to be converted into machine language so that the computer can understand it and execute it. 

The process of turning into machine language is called compiling. Unlike other languages like C++, C that depends on other platforms, Java is a platform-independent language. Let's learn more about the three components of Java to understand it better. 

Java Runtime Environment(JRE)

It refers to an environment where java bytecodes are executed and it contains JVM, all class libraries and support files that use JVM at runtime. So, it is a software package that is required to run the java program. So, basically, it is an execution of JVM. 

Java Virtual Machine(JVM)

Java Virtual Machine component gives a run-time environment so that Java bytecodes can be executed. It performs three important tasks including loading, verifying, and execution of the code. Following are its three important notations:

Specifications — This document mention about what is required for the implementation

Implementation — This notation is the implementation called as JRE

Instance — When the Java main program is executed, an instance of JVM is formed.

Java Development Kit(JDK)

Java Development Kit includes JRE that contains necessary tools like compile, document, and package data program. This free of charge kit also includes interpreter, compiler, achiever, Javadoc, and other important tools required for the development.

Conclusion

Now you have understood the basic information about java and its components. Java has created many applications in the past and its future also shines brightly due to its user-friendly approach.