Getting Started with Java - Beginning Java 7 - page 1

C H A P T E R 1
Getting Started with Java
Welcome to Java. This chapter launches you on a tour of this technology by focusing
on fundamentals. First, you receive an answer to the “What is Java?” question. If you
havenotpreviouslyencounteredJava,theanswermightsurpriseyou.Next,youarein-
troduced to some basic tools that will help you start developing Java programs, and to
theNetBeansintegrateddevelopmentenvironment,whichsimplifiesthedevelopmentof
these programs. Finally, you explore fundamental language features.
What Is Java?
Javaisalanguagefordescribingprograms,andJavaisaplatformonwhichtorunpro-
gramswritteninJavaandotherlanguages(e.g.,Groovy,Jython,andJRuby).Thissection
introduces you to Java the language and Java the platform.
Note To discover Java's history, check out Wikipedia's “Java (programming lan-
guage)” ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Java_(programming_language)#History ) and “Java (software platform)”
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Java_(software_platform)#History ) entries.
Java Is a Language
Java is a general-purpose, class-based, and object-oriented language patterned after C
andC++tomakeiteasierforexistingC/C++developerstomigratetothislanguage.Not
surprisingly, Java borrows elements from these languages. The following list identifies
some of these elements:
• Java supports the same single-line and multiline comment styles as found in
C/C++ for documenting source code.