Conceived in 1990 by Sun Micro Systems
Released to public in 1995
Sun continues to maintain the code
Portability in Java is achieved by running inside of a Virtual Machine
Portability is not necessarily guaranteed
Compilers translate source into ‘bytecode’ the ‘machine language’ of the virtual machine
javac <sourcefile.java> // Compiles a program into ‘bytecode’
java <bytecodefile> // Runs a given class file (the extension ‘.class’ is automatically appended)
javadoc <sourcefile.java> // Creates documentation based on specifically formatted comments in the java source
Java implements standard control structures: if ...else, while, for, do ... while, switch, break, continue