[tubebender]

Can someone tell me in simple terms what JAVA is and what it does. (I don't mean the Java I'm drinking)...

[ShadowAce]

It's basically just another computer programming language. It's big advantage is that it can run on multiple platforms, so the programmer just has to write the code once, and it can run on Windows, SPARC, Linux, and Apple, for example.

[ctdonath2]

Java really has two parts:

1. Java the language is the successor to the popular programming language C++. It provides the benefits of object-oriented programming without the legacy-related flaws C++ inherited from C.

2. Java the virtual machine is a way to make programs written in Java (the language) run on practically any computer. It lets programmers write programs without having to worry about whether it will run on a PC, Mac, Sun, Windows, Linux, QNix, or other common (or uncommon) computers or operating systems.

The two are deeply intertwined.

[Lazamataz]

Can someone tell me in simple terms what JAVA is and what it does. (I don't mean the Java I'm drinking)...

Java sucks a lot.

.NET is cool tho.

[Rifleman]

The core and essence of Java is the VM (Virtual Machine) which is a computer that exists only as an emulator/simulator/interpreter running on the various examples of real computer hardware. The VM is designed to execute the compiled Java language efficiently and to provide security features that would be hard to do any other way. A lot of effort went into making it work well and securely on the internet.

Think of it as a mask that the real computer wears so every computer looks just the same to programs written in Java, so you don't have to rewrite them for every computer.

The Java language also comes with a huge set of libraries, written in Java, that provide complex and powerful features to the programmer, ie, user interfaces, database access, networking, remote processing, server functions, you name it.

Looked at as just a language, it is just a paste up of C/C++ with some of C++'s most baroque features removed or improved, then tweeked to live on a VM. It is mostly designed to not frighten C programmers. It should have been some flavor of Lisp, but that would have been too scary for the PHBs and many average programmers.