Type	Object-oriented programming language
Paradigm	Multi-paradigm: generic, object-oriented (class-based), functional, imperative, reflective, concurrent
Designed by	James Gosling
Developer	Oracle Corporation (current), Sun Microsystems (original)
First appeared	May 23, 1995
Typing discipline	Static, strong, safe, nominative, manifest
Memory management	Automatic garbage collection
Open Format?	Yes (Java 1.3)
Free Format?	Yes (Java 1.3)
Filename extensions	.java .class .jar .jmod
Magic Number	?

    Java is a high-level, class-based, object-oriented programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems (which has since merged into Oracle Corporation) based on an earlier project to develop a programming language for embedded cable television systems, and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. There are 3 billion devices that runs Java, mostly phones, Blu-ray players, servers, and TV sets.

      The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++, but it has fewer low-level facilities than either of them. Java applications are typically compiled to bytecode (class file) that can run on any Java virtual machine (JVM) regardless of computer architecture.

Java is a general-purpose, concurrent, class-based, object-oriented language that is specifically designed to have as few implementation dependencies as possible. It is intended to let application developers "write once, run anywhere" (WORA), meaning that code that runs on one platform does not need to be recompiled to run on another. The Jar format (zipped Java classes) is used by Java in addition to .jar and .class files. 

BD-J is based on Java ME, meaning it only uses Java 1.3 class files.

References

• Java (Wikipedia)
• Ant: tool for building Java applications
• Java apparently has the planned obsolescence of a built-in expiration date.
• Why can't we call static methods using the object in Java?
• Developing and running a Java EE Hello World application
• Introduction to Programming in Java (free online textbook)
• New JavaScript library brings Java to browsers without applets
• Java SE Naming and Versions

Author(s) : Æ Firestone