Features of Java
The primary objective of Java programming language creation was to
make it portable, simple and secure programming language. Apart from
this, there are also some excellent features which play an important role
in the popularity of this language. The features of Java are also known as
Java buzzwords.
A list of the most important features of the Java language is given below.
1. Simple
2. Object-Oriented
3. Portable
4. Platform independent
5. Secured
6. Robust
7. Architecture neutral
8. Interpreted
9. High Performance
10. Multithreaded
11. Distributed
12. Dynamic
Simple
Java is very easy to learn, and its syntax is simple, clean and easy to
understand. According to Sun Microsystem, Java language is a simple
programming language because:
o Java syntax is based on C++ (so easier for programmers to learn it
after C++).
o Java has removed many complicated and rarely-used features, for
example, explicit pointers, operator overloading, etc.
o There is no need to remove unreferenced objects because there is
an Automatic Garbage Collection in Java.
Object-oriented
Java is an object-oriented programming language. Everything in Java is an
object. Object-oriented means we organize our software as a combination
of different types of objects that incorporate both data and behavior.
Object-oriented programming (OOPs) is a methodology that simplifies
software development and maintenance by providing some rules.
Basic concepts of OOPs are:
1. Object
2. Class
3. Inheritance
4. Polymorphism
5. Abstraction
6. Encapsulation
Platform Independent
Java is platform independent because it is different from other languages
like C, C++, etc. which are compiled into platform specific machines while
Java is a write once, run anywhere language. A platform is the hardware or
software environment in which a program runs.
There are two types of platforms software-based and hardware-based.
Java provides a software-based platform.
The Java platform differs from most other platforms in the sense that it is
a software-based platform that runs on top of other hardware-based
platforms. It has two components:
1. Runtime Environment
2. API(Application Programming Interface)
Java code can be executed on multiple platforms, for example, Windows,
Linux, Sun Solaris, Mac/OS, etc. Java code is compiled by the compiler and
converted into bytecode. This bytecode is a platform-independent code
because it can be run on multiple platforms, i.e., Write Once and Run
Anywhere (WORA).
Secured
Java is best known for its security. With Java, we can develop virus-free
systems. Java is secured because:
No explicit pointer
Java Programs run inside a virtual machine sandbox
o Classloader: Classloader in Java is a part of the Java Runtime
Environment (JRE) which is used to load Java classes into the Java
Virtual Machine dynamically. It adds security by separating the
package for the classes of the local file system from those that are
imported from network sources.
o Bytecode Verifier: It checks the code fragments for illegal code
that can violate access rights to objects.
o Security Manager: It determines what resources a class can
access such as reading and writing to the local disk.
Java language provides these securities by default. Some security can also
be provided by an application developer explicitly through SSL, JAAS,
Cryptography, etc.
Robust
The English mining of Robust is strong. Java is robust because:
o It uses strong memory management.
o There is a lack of pointers that avoids security problems.
o Java provides automatic garbage collection which runs on the Java
Virtual Machine to get rid of objects which are not being used by a
Java application anymore.
o There are exception handling and the type checking mechanism in
Java. All these points make Java robust.
Architecture-neutral
Java is architecture neutral because there are no implementation
dependent features, for example, the size of primitive types is fixed.
In C programming, int data type occupies 2 bytes of memory for 32-bit
architecture and 4 bytes of memory for 64-bit architecture. However, it
occupies 4 bytes of memory for both 32 and 64-bit architectures in Java.
Portable
Java is portable because it facilitates you to carry the Java bytecode to
any platform. It doesn't require any implementation.
High-performance
Java is faster than other traditional interpreted programming languages
because Java bytecode is "close" to native code. It is still a little bit slower
than a compiled language (e.g., C++). Java is an interpreted language
that is why it is slower than compiled languages, e.g., C, C++, etc.
Distributed
Java is distributed because it facilitates users to create distributed
applications in Java. RMI and EJB are used for creating distributed
applications. This feature of Java makes us able to access files by calling
the methods from any machine on the internet.
Multi-threaded
A thread is like a separate program, executing concurrently. We can write
Java programs that deal with many tasks at once by defining multiple
threads. The main advantage of multi-threading is that it doesn't occupy
memory for each thread. It shares a common memory area. Threads are
important for multi-media, Web applications, etc.
Dynamic
Java is a dynamic language. It supports the dynamic loading of classes. It
means classes are loaded on demand. It also supports functions from its
native languages, i.e., C and C++.
Java supports dynamic compilation and automatic memory management
(garbage collection).
