The programming language that made “Write Once, Read Anywhere” (WORA) a standard turns 34 this year (or 30, depending on which anniversary you’re counting). Learn about the history behind Java programming language in this edition of Tech Time Warp.
The Sun Microsystems team—James Gosling, Patrick Naughton, and Mike Sheridan—began developing the Java programming language on Feb. 1, 1991, and released it to the public on May 23, 1995. The team initially aimed to create a programming language for consumer devices, but the scope soon grew to include the burgeoning World Wide Web. What makes Java special is its cross-platform portability. Its source code is compiled into “bytecode” that can run anywhere with a Java virtual machine—and, according to Oracle, which acquired Sun Microsystems in 2010, more than 60 billion Java virtual machines are currently running worldwide.
Java’s enduring popularity stems from both its portability and its versatility. Developers can use it to write anything from network applications to applets on a webpage. The language is object-oriented, so pieces of code can be reused across programs, as well as multithreaded allowing for concurrent execution of tasks. The bytecode makes it platform-agnostic, so you no longer must code separate versions for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It’s also relatively easy to learn, especially if you have experience with C or C++.
Thirty years after its initial development, Java remains the most popular programming language for Android. It also serves as a key underpinning of the “Internet of Things.”
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This post originally appeared on Smarter MSP.