Java: The Accidental Programming Language

Java was never meant to be a programming language but was created by accident. That’s correct! Java was not created with programmers in mind, but rather as a platform for applets (a small software program that supports a larger application program). These are graphical and frequent audio applications that run in your web browser.

So, how did this accident occur?

James Gosling worked at Sun Labs in 1992. He and his colleagues were working on a set-top box at the time, and they began by “cleaning up” the C++ and ended up with a new programming language named Oak, which is now known as Java.

The oak is a symbol of strength and has been designated as a national tree in numerous nations, including the United States, France, Germany, and Romania. Oak was renamed “Java” in 1995 because it was already a trademark of Oak Technologies.

Let’s make it clear. Designing an object-oriented programming language is hard. Not only do you need to worry about concepts like polymorphism and encapsulation, but you also have to design the syntax (what people will have to type) and the semantics (what the computer does with the code people type). It’s a tough job for one person alone, but Sun Microsystems managed it. The result was Java. When Sun released Java in 1995, it wasn’t aiming to create a new programming language, but rather going after Microsoft with Netscape Navigator, as well as Apple’s UI. But it ended up creating a whole new language that is now used every day by millions of people all over the world, on desktops and smartphones everywhere.

It’s an impressive journey into this strange new world of programming languages, its difficulties in defining itself, and how it eventually settled into its comfortable position as a core element of popular computing today.