Java Reference
In-Depth Information
Applets did in fact become popular and remain a common component of web
page design. However, they do not dominate interactive or multimedia displays
in the browser as expected. Many other “plug-in” programs also run within the
browser environment.
Though Java's capabilities grew enormously with the release of several
expanded versions (see Section 1.3), Java has not yet found wide success in desk-
top client applications. Instead Java gained widespread acceptance at the two
opposite ends of the platform spectrum: large business systems and very small
systems.
Java is used extensively in business to develop enterprise, or middleware,
applications such as on-line stores, transactions processing, dynamic web page
generation, and database interactions. Java has also returned to its Oak roots and
become very common on small platforms such as smart cards, cell phones, and
PDAs. For example, as of mid-2004 there are over 350 different Java-enabled
mobile phone handsets available across the world, and over 600 million Java
Cards have been distributed
1.3 Versions of Java
Since its introduction, Sun has released new versions of the Java core language
with significant enhancements about every two years or so. Until recently, Sun
denoted the versions with a 1.x number, where x reached up to 4. (Less drastic
releases with bug fixes were indicated with a third number as in 1.4.2.) The
next version, however, will be called Java 5.0. Furthermore, Sun has split its
development kits into so-called editions, each aimed towards a platform with
different capabilities. Here we try to clarify all of this.
1.3.1 Standard Edition
Below is a time line for the different versions of the Standard Edition (SE) of
Java, which offers the core language libraries (called packages in Java) and is
aimed at desktop platforms. We include a sampling of the new features that came
with each release.
1995 -Version 1.0. The Java Development Kit (JDK) included:
8 packages with 212 classes.
Netscape 2.0-4.0 included Java 1.0.
Microsoft and other companies licensed Java.
1997 -Version 1.1:
23 packages, 504 classes.
Improvements included better event handling, inner classes, improved VM.
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