Java Persistence/What is Java?

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Java is an object oriented programming language first released by Sun Microsystems in 1995. It blended concepts from existing languages such as C++ and Smalltalk into a new programming language. It achieved its success over the many rival languages of the day because it was associated with this newish thing called the "Internet" in allowing Java applets to be embedded in web pages and run using Netscape. Its other main reason for success was unlike many of its competitors it was open, "free", and not embedded with a integrated development environment (IDE). Java also included the source code to its class library. This enabled Java to be adopted by many different companies producing their own Java development environments but sharing the same language, this open model fostered the growth in the Java language and continues today with the open sourcing of Java.

Java quickly moved from allowing developers to build dinky applets to being the standard server-side language running much of the Internet today. The Enterprise Edition (JEE) of Java was defined to provide an open model for server application to be written and portable across any compliant JEE platform provider. The JEE standard is basically a basket of other Java specifications brought together under one umbrella and has major providers including IBM WebSphere, RedHat JBoss, Sun Glassfish, BEA WebLogic, Oracle AS and many others.

Google Trends[edit | edit source]

  1. Unfortunately hard to separate Java island from Java language.
  2. Could not include Oracle because of Oracle database hits.

See also[edit | edit source]