History of Java

In 1991, Sun Microsystems decided to develop special software that can be used to manipulate consumer electronic appliances. A team of Sun Microsystems engineers led by James Gosling decided to develop a language for consumer electronics appliances under a project named Green. Gosling began writing software in C++ for embedding into such items as toasters, VCRs, and Personal Digital Assistants (PDA’s). The embedded software makes many appliances more intelligent. Gosling’s solution to the problems of C++ was a new language called Oak. In 1992 the Green Project Team demonstrated the application of their new language to control consumer electronic appliances using a handheld device with a touch-sensitive screen. Later in 1993, The Green Project team came up with the idea of developing Web applets using the new language that can be run on all types of computers connected to the internet, finally, in 1994 the team has developed a Web Browser known as “HotJava” that locate and run the applets on internet. HotJava demonstrated the power of the new language making it popular instantly among internet users. 1995 Oak was renamed by the team because there was already a programming language called Oak, so they changed the name to Java.

In 1996 Java established itself not only as a leader in Internet programming but also as a high-performance general-purpose, object-oriented programming language