History of Java Programming

  • James Gosling, Mike Sheridan, and Patrick Naughton initiated the Java language project in June 1991. 
  • The small team of sun engineers called Green Team. 
  • Initially designed for small, embedded systems in electronic appliances like set-top boxes.
  • Firstly, it was called "Greentalk" by James Gosling, and the file extension was .gt.
  • After that, it was called Oak and was developed as a part of the Green project.
Java

Why is Java named "Oak"?

  • Oak is a symbol of strength and chosen as a national tree of many countries like the U.S.A., France, Germany, Romania, etc.
  • In 1995, Oak was renamed as "Java" because it was already a trademark by Oak Technologies.

Why Java Programming named "Java"?

  • The team gathered to choose a new name. The suggested words were "dynamic", "revolutionary", "Silk", "jolt", "DNA", etc.
  •  They wanted something that reflected the essence of  the technology: revolutionary, dynamic, lively, cool, unique, and easy to spell and fun to say.
  • According to James Gosling, "Java was one of the top choices along with Silk".
  • Since Java was so unique, most of the team members preferred Java than other names.
  • Java is an island of Indonesia where the first coffee was produced (called java coffee).
  • It is a kind of espresso bean. Java name was chosen by James Gosling while having coffee near his office.
  • Java is just a name, not an acronym.
  • Initially developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems (which is now a subsidiary of Oracle Corporation) and released in 1995.
  • In 1995, Time magazine called Java one of the Ten Best Products of 1995.
  • JDK 1.0 released in(January 23, 1996). After the first release of Java, there have been many additional features added to the language. 
  • Now Java is being used in Windows applications, Web applications, enterprise applications, mobile applications etc.
  • Each new version adds the new features in Java.