Page 9 - DCAP501_Modern Programming Tools and Techniques I

Modern Programming Tools and Techniques I

• Explain data types in Java
• Discuss operators in Java
• Describe expressions in Java

Introduction
Sun Microsystems began the development of Java confidentially in 1991, which was later released to the
public in 1995. Java is comparatively a new and exciting technology. Interestingly, it was developed
with the aim of providing solutions for household appliances such as telephones. From there on, it has
developed into a fully functional programming language. Java can be integrated directly onto a Web
page as an applet (a Java program that can be included in an HTML page). This makes the Internet a
much more dynamic and interesting place to gather information, do business, or just have fun! In fact,
this dynamic aspect of Java is what initially sparked interest in many researchers and engineers and
therefore, resulted in its popularity.

Did you Know?
Sun Microsystems originally wanted to name Java as “OAK”. But it could not do
so as that name was already taken by Oak Technologies. Other names that were
suggested were “Silk and “DNA”. Ultimately, the name “Java” was selected
because it gave the Web a “jolt”, and Sun intended to abstain from names that
sounded very technical.

Java is an important object-oriented programming language that is used in the software industry today.
Object Oriented Programming is also known as OOP. Objects are the basic elements of object-oriented
programming. OOPS (Object Oriented Programming System) is used to describe a computer
application that comprises multiple objects connected to each other. It is a type of programming
language in which the programmers not only define the data type of a data structure (files, arrays and
so on), but also define the behavior of the data structure. Therefore, data structure becomes an object,
which includes both data and functions.
Just like any other programming language, Java programs consist of some basic elements such as
keywords, constants, variables, data types, operators and expressions that help a programmer to create
logical programs, and some important features such as platform-independence which enables it to run
on any computer platform.
1.1 Features of Java

Let us understand Java better by understanding its important features. Following features of Java make
it an important programming language:

1. Platform Independent: The write-once-run-anywhere approach towards programming is one of
the key features of Java that makes it a powerful programming language. The programs written on
one platform can run on any platform, irrespective of the hardware. But the hardware platform
used to execute Java programs must have the Java Virtual Machine (JVM).
2. Simple: There are various features that make Java a simple language, which can be easily learnt
and effectively used. Java does not use pointers explicitly, thereby making it easy to write and
debug programs. Java is capable of delivering a bug free system due to its strong memory
management. It also has an automatic memory allocation and de-allocation system in place.
3. Object Oriented: To qualify as an object-oriented language, a language must exhibit four
characteristics:
(a) Inheritance: It is the technique of creating new classes by making use of the behavior of the
existing classes. This is done by extending the behavior of the existing classes just by adding
additional features as required, thus bringing in reusability of existing code.
(b) Encapsulation: It refers to the bundling of data along with the methods that act on that data.

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