Java: a language that provides speed and ease of use.

Java is one of the three most used programming languages in the world, for this reason, it is very important to know it in depth.

In our article last week, we gave you an overview of the 5 most used programming languages ​​in mobile development and today we want to emphasize Java, since it is one of the most used worldwide to carry out this work.

Let's start at the beginning, what is Java?...

It is a programming language and computing platform first marketed in 1995 by Sun Microsystems (a company acquired by Oracle in 2010), which was originally designed for the creation of programs for decoders and portable devices. It then became a popular choice for building web applications.

Being a cross-platform and cross-paradigm programming language, it is present on several billion devices worldwide and is used by about 6.8 million developers and its goal is to allow application developers to write the program once and run on any device (known as WORA, or "write once, run anywhere"), which means that code that runs on one platform doesn't have to be recompiled to run on another.

The Java Philosophy...

The Java language was created with five main goals:

1. Use the object-oriented programming paradigm.
2. Allow the execution of the same program in multiple operating systems.
3. Include by default support for networking.
4. Be designed to execute code on remote systems securely.
5. Be easy to use and take the best of other object-oriented languages, such as C++.

Java Features...

• Object oriented. This feature refers to a programming method and language design. One of the great promises of object-oriented programming is the creation of more generic entities that allow the reuse of software between projects, one of the fundamental premises of Software Engineering.

In this sense, the objects could be seen as reusable pieces that can be used in multiple different projects, thus enabling the software industry to build large-scale projects using already existing components of proven quality; ultimately leading to a drastic reduction in development time.

• Platform independence. This means that programs written in the Java language can also be executed on any type of hardware. It is the meaning of being able to write a program once and it can run on any device, as the Java axiom goes, "write once, run anywhere".

The concept of Java platform independence is very successful in applications in the server environment, such as Web Services, Servlets, Java Beans, as well as in OSGi-based embedded systems, using embedded Java environments.

• Garbage collector. In Java, the problem of memory leaks is largely avoided thanks to the automatic garbage collector. The programmer determines when the objects are created, and the Java runtime environment is responsible for managing the life cycle of the objects.

When there are no references to an object left, the Java garbage collector deletes the object, thus freeing the memory it occupied, preventing possible leaks (example: an object created and only used within a method only has an entity within it; when exiting the method the object is removed). Still, it is possible for memory leaks to occur if your code stores references to objects that are no longer needed—that is, they can still occur, but at a higher conceptual level. All in all, the Java Garbage Collector allows for easy object creation and deletion and better security.

What are the advantages of Java?...

Java is a very versatile language, below we will explain the advantages and positive aspects of Java:

• It provides an extensive standard library that makes coding easy (allows you to create a complete stand-alone application using Java) and tools so that programs can be distributed.
• Programs written in Java can run on any kind of hardware, and a Java application will continue to work even if your operating system or some other external program crashes.
• Being cross-platform is a significant advantage for software developers, since before it was necessary to make a program for each operating system, for example Windows, Linux, MacOS, etc.
• Java differs from other programming paradigms because developers can continue or update something they've already finished, instead of starting from scratch. Objects keep code tidy and easy to modify when needed.
• It provides a secure platform for developing and running applications, automatically managing memory, providing secure communication channels and protecting data privacy. Having a rigorous syntax prevents code corruption.
• Java performs multiple tasks simultaneously within the same program, improving performance and execution speed.

Java allows you to design software to be executed and distributed on different platforms (MAC, Linux, Windows, etc.), without the need to modify them and without thinking about the architecture of the machine. In addition, with Java you can design almost any element or application, create dynamic and attractive web pages (using XML), and include sound and multimedia objects, databases and other functionalities.

What about you?...do you develop using Java?

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