From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
Java
n 1: an island in Indonesia to the south of Borneo; one of the
world's most densely populated regions
2: a beverage consisting of an infusion of ground coffee beans;
"he ordered a cup of coffee" [syn: coffee, java]
3: a platform-independent object-oriented programming language
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Java \Ja"va\ (j[aum]"v[.a]), n.
1. One of the islands of the Malay Archipelago belonging to
the Netherlands.
[1913 Webster]
2. Java coffee, a kind of coffee brought from Java.
[1913 Webster]
3. (Computers) [all capitals] an object-oriented computer
programming language, derived largely from C++, used
widely for design and display of web pages on the
world-wide web. It is an interpreted language, and has
been suggested as a platform-independent code to allow
execution of the same progam under multiple operating
systems without recompiling. The language is still (1997)
under active development, and is evolving.
[GG + PJC]
Java cat (Zool.), the musang.
Java sparrow (Zool.), a species of finch ({Padda
oryzivora}), native of Java, but very commonly kept as a
cage bird; -- called also ricebird, and paddy bird. In
the male the upper parts are glaucous gray, the head and
tail black, the under parts delicate rose, and the cheeks
white. The bill is large and red. A white variety is also
kept as a cage bird.
[1913 Webster]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
higher programming language \higher programming language\ n.
(Computers)
A computer programming language with an instruction set
allowing one instruction to code for several assembly
language instructions.
Note: The aggregation of several assembly-language
instructions into one instruction allows much greater
efficiency in writing computer programs. Most programs
are now written in some higher programming language,
such as BASIC, FORTRAN, COBOL, C, C++,
PROLOG, or JAVA.
[PJC]
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008) [foldoc]:
Java
<programming, language, portability> (After the Indonesian island, a
source of programming fluid) A simple, object-oriented,
distributed, interpreted, robust, secure,
architecture-neutral, portable, multithreaded, dynamic,
buzzword-compliant, general-purpose programming language
developed by Sun Microsystems in the early 1990's (initially for
set-top television controllers), and released to the public in 1995.
Java first became popular by being the earliest portable
dynamic client-side content for the World-Wide Web in the
form of platform-independent Java "applets". In the late
1990's and into the 2000's it has also become very popular
on the server side, where an entire set of APIs defines the J2EE.
Java is both a set of public specifications (controlled by
Sun Microsystems through the JCP) and a series of
implementations of those specifications.
Java is syntactially similar to C++ without user-definable
operator overloading, (though it does have method
overloading), without multiple inheritance, and extensive
automatic coercions. It has automatic garbage collection.
Java extends C++'s object-oriented facilities with those
of Objective C for dynamic method resolution.
Whereas programs in C++ and similar languages are compiled
and linked to platform-specific binary executables, Java
programs are typically compiled to portable architecture-neutral
bytecode or ".class" files, which are run using a {Java
Virtual Machine}. The JVM is also called an interpreter,
though it is more correct to say that it uses {Just-In-Time
Compilation} to convert the bytecode into native {machine
code}, yielding greater efficiency than most interpreted
languages, rivalling C++ for many long-running, non-GUI
applications. The run-time system is typically written in
POSIX-compliant ANSI C or C++. Some implementations
allow Java class files to be translated into native
machine code during or after compilation.
The Java compiler and linker both enforce {strong type
checking} - procedures must be explicitly typed. Java
supports the creation of virus-free, tamper-free systems
with authentication based on public-key encryption.
Java has an extensive library of routines for all kinds of
programming tasks, rivalling that of other languages.
For example, the "java.net} package supports TCP/IP
protocols like HTTP and FTP. Java applications can
access objects across the Internet via URLs almost as easily as
on the local file system. There are also capabilities for
several types of distributed applications.
The Java GUI libraries provide portable interfaces. For example,
there is an abstract Window class and implementations of it
for Unix, Microsoft Windows and the Macintosh.
The "java.awt" and "javax.swing" classes can be used either in
Web-based "Applets" or in client-side or "desktop" applications.
There are also packages for developing XML applications,
web services, servlets and other web applications,
security, date and time calculations and I/O formatting,
database (JDBC), and many others.
Java is not directly related to JavaScript despite the name.
{(http://java.sun.com/)}.
Usenet newsgroup: news:comp.lang.java.
(2005-01-21)
From Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) [jargon]:
Java
An object-oriented language originally developed at Sun by James
Gosling (and known by the name "Oak") with the intention of being the
successor to C++ (the project was however originally sold to Sun as
an embedded language for use in set-top boxes). After the great
Internet explosion of 1993-1994, Java was hacked into a
byte-interpreted language and became the focus of a relentless hype
campaign by Sun, which touted it as the new language of choice for
distributed applications.
Java is indeed a stronger and cleaner design than C++ and has been
embraced by many in the hacker community -- but it has been a
considerable source of frustration to many others, for reasons ranging
from uneven support on different Web browser platforms, performance
issues, and some notorious deficiencies in some of the standard
toolkits (AWT in particular). Microsoft's determined attempts to
corrupt the language (which it rightly sees as a threat to its OS
monopoly) have not helped. As of 2002, these issues are still in the
process of being resolved.
Despite many attractive features and a good design, it is difficult to
find people willing to praise Java who have tried to implement a
complex, real-world system with it (but to be fair it is early days
yet, and no other language has ever been forced to spend its childhood
under the limelight the way Java has). On the other hand, Java has
already been a big win in academic circles, where it has taken the
place of Pascal as the preferred tool for teaching the basics of
good programming to the next generation of hackers.