History and Versions of Java
History
- 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 it was 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.
- Why 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 had they choose the name Java for Java language? 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 in 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 a cup of coffee nearby his office.
- Notice that 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 was released on 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, cards, etc. Each new version adds new features in Java.
JAVA VERSIONS
| Version | Release Details |
|---|
| JDK Alpha and Beta | 1995 |
| JDK 1.0 | 23rd Jan 1996 |
| JDK 1.1 | 19th Feb 1997 |
| J2SE 1.2 | 8th Dec 1998 |
| J2SE 1.3 | 8th May 2000 |
| J2SE 1.4 | 6th Feb 2002 |
| J2SE 5.0 | 30th Sep 2004 |
| Java SE 6 | 11th Dec 2006 |
| Java SE 7 | 28th July 2011 |
| Java SE 8 | 18th Mar 2014 |
| Java SE 9 | 21st Sep 2017 |
| Java SE 10 | 20th Mar 2018 |
| Java SE 11 | September 2018 |
| Java SE 12 | March 2019 |
| Java SE 13 | September 2019 |
| Java SE 14 | March 2020 |
| Java SE 15 | September 2020 |
| Java SE 16 | March 2021 |
| Java SE 17 | September 2021 |
| Java SE 18 | March 2022 |
Since Java SE 8 release, the Oracle corporation follows a pattern in which every even version is release in March month and an odd version released in September month.