Running Linux, Third Edition

Java

Java is a network-aware, object-oriented language developed by Sun Microsystems. Java has been causing a lot of excitement in the computing community as it strives to provide a secure language for running applets downloaded from World Wide Web sites. The idea is simple: allow web browsers to download Java applets, which run on the client’s machine. The popular Netscape web browser (discussed in Chapter 16) includes support for Java, and the Java Developer’s Kit and other tools have been ported to Linux. But Java is not only suitable for those applets, in recent time, it has been used more and more as a general purpose programming language that offers fewer obstacles for beginners and that—because of its built-in networking libraries—is often used for programming client/server applications.

The Promise of Java, or Why You Might Want to Use Java

All this may not sound too exciting to you. There are lots of object-oriented programming languages, after all, and with Netscape plug-ins you can download executable programs from web servers and execute them on your local machine.

But Java is more. One of its most exciting aspects is platform independence. That means that you can write and compile your Java program and then deploy it on almost every machine, whether it is a lowly 386 running Linux, a powerful Pentium II running the latest bloatware from Microsoft, or an IBM mainframe. Sun Microsystems calls this “Write Once, Run Anywhere.” Unfortunately, real life is not as simple ...