Web Design in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition

Java Applets

Java is an object-oriented programming language developed by Sun Microsystems. It is not related to JavaScript, which is a scripting language developed by Netscape to run within an HTML document in a browser. Because Java is a full programming language (like C or C++), it can be used to create whole applications.

Java’s primary contribution to web content, however, has been in the form of Java applets , which are self-contained, mini-executable programs. These programs, named with the .class suffix, can be placed right on the web page, like an image. Java applets can be used for all sorts of interactive and multimedia gadgets, such as clocks, calculators, spreadsheets, scrolling marquees, games, text effects, and digital “guitars,” just to name a few.

There was a great buzz among web developers when Java applets first hit the scene, but since then, enthusiasm has waned in the face of performance issues (applets take a long time to initialize and tend to crash browsers) and the dominance of Flash for multimedia and interactivity.