Java Reference
In-Depth Information
1
Getting Started
She starts—she moves—she seems to feel
The thrill of life along her keel.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW,
The Building of the Ship
Introduction
This chapter introduces you to the Java language and gives you enough details to allow
you to write simple programs involving expressions, assignments, and console output.
The details about assignments and expressions are similar to that of most other high-
level languages. Every language has its own way of handling strings and console out-
put, so even the experienced programmer should look at that material. Even if you are
already an experienced programmer in some language other than Java, you should read
at least the subsection entitled “A Sample Java Application Program” in Section 1.1
and preferably all of Section 1.2, and you should read all of Section 1.3 on strings and
at least skim Section 1.4 to find out about Java defined constants and comments.
Prerequisites
This topic is self-contained and requires no preparation other than some simple high
school algebra.
1.1
Introduction to Java
Eliminating the middle man is not necessarily a good idea.
Found in my old economics class notes
In this section we give you an overview of the Java programming language.
Origins of the Java Language
Java is well-known as a programming language for Internet applications. However, this
topic, and many other topics and programmers, view Java as a general-purpose program-
ming language that is suitable for most any application whether it involves the Internet
or not. The first version of Java was neither of these things, but it evolved into both of
these things.
In 1991, James Gosling led a team at Sun Microsystems that developed the first
version of Java (which was not yet called
Java
). This first version of the language was
Search WWH ::




Custom Search