History of Java

Here is the brief history of Java programming language.

  • James Gosling, Patrick Naughton and Mike Sheridan started the Java language project in June 1991. James Gosling is known as the father of Java.
  • Initial members of the java project were called "green Team".
  • The initial idea was to develop a platform independent language for consumer electronics devices like television and set-top box.
  • The language was initially named ‘Oak’, after an oak tree outside Gosling's office. It was later renamed as "Java" in 1995.
  • Gosling kept the syntax of Java similar to C and C++ to make things easier for existing application programmers.
  • Java was created on the principles like Robust, Simple, Object-Oriented, High Performance, Multithreaded, Architecture Neutral, Platform-independent, Secured, Dynamic etc.
  • Sun Microsystems released the first public implementation as Java 1.0 in 1995. It promised Write Once, Run Anywhere (WORA) providing no-cost run-times on popular platforms.
  • Most major web browsers soon started supporting the ability to run Java applets within web pages, and Java quickly gained popularity.
  • On 13thNovember, 2006, Sun Microsystems released much of its Java virtual machine (JVM) as free and open-source software, under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
  • Currently, Java is used in internet programming, games, mobile devices, embedded systems, and corporate solutions.corporate solutions, etc.

Picture of James Gosling

James Gosling 2008

Java major version release dates

Here are the release dates of major java versions.

  • JDK 1.0 (January 23, 1996)[38]
  • JDK 1.1 (February 19, 1997)
  • J2SE 1.2 (December 8, 1998)
  • J2SE 1.3 (May 8, 2000)
  • J2SE 1.4 (February 6, 2002)
  • J2SE 5.0 (September 30, 2004)
  • Java SE 6 (December 11, 2006)
  • Java SE 7 (July 28, 2011)
  • Java SE 8 (March 18, 2014)
  • Java SE 9 (September 21, 2017 )
  • Java SE 10 (March 20, 2018)
  • Java SE 11 (September 25, 2018)
  • Java SE 12 (March 19, 2019)