JAVA SDK

JAVA SDK

Java technology is very pervasive and subsequently found its way into all sorts of electronic devices,  hence it's much talked about in most technology circles, yet there are countless multinational corporations,  organisations, conglomerate, trades and business people who still have no idea what Java really is. So "What exactly is Java?"  You may ask.

Java is a technology that forks into two areas, the first a high-level computer programming language and the second, a computer software-only platform environment. As a computer language, it rivals every other for its simplicity, its architectural neutrality and platform-independence, its portability, its high level of performance,  its security, its inter-nationality and its multi-threading ability, but its uniqueness and excellence doesn't end there.

As a computer software-only platform environment, it rivals every other hardware based computer platforms with its machine-independent bytecode -the machine language of the JVM (java Virtual Machine)- which gives it its platform neutrality,  also  for its applet/servlet/OO bean technology, for its distributability, for its industrial strength multi-tier web services, for its robustness, but once again, its uniqueness and excellence as a software-only platform that runs on other hardware based platforms, doesn't end there.

Because of its versatility Java now comes in three flavours, viz Java Standard Edition (Java SE), Java Enterprise edition (Java EE) and Java Micro Edition (Java ME), Making it  the language of choice for developing enterprise and mobile applications. As mentioned in the previous blog, Java is the brainchild of Sun Microsystems  which was subsequently acquired by Oracle Corporation. Most of the Sun Servers are now re-branded as Sun Oracle servers, but that just semantics.

Here is the link to download for the Java SDK, and it's absolutely free. Accept the licence agreement, select your platform. viz, Solaris SPARC,  Solaris SPARC 64-bit, Solaris (x86 or x64), Linux (x86 or x64)  Windows (x86 or x64), then download

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jdk7-downloads-1880260.html

The file that downloads would be named something like this, jdk-7u71-windows-i586.exe and have the streaming cup of java as a favicon. Once again platform dependant run the executable and accept the default installation subdirectories. This installation will contain the JVM (Java Virtual Machine) and the JRE (java Runtime Environment) and whatever else you need to write your first Java Program.

Next I will cover CLASSPATH and show you how to create your first executable Java program.