History of Java Language

Java was conceived by James Gosling, Patrick Naughton, Chris Warth, Ed Frank and Mike Sheridan at Sun Microsystem, Inc. in 1991. It took 18 months to develop the first working version. This language was initially called "Oak" but was renamed "JAVA" in 1995. Java generated immediate interested in Business community because of the phenomenal interest in World Wide Web. Java is now used in create Web pages with dynamic and interactive content, to develop large-scale enterprise applications to enhance the functionality of World Wide Web server, to provide applications for consumer device.

Why Java is important to the  Internet: 

The Internet helped catapult Java to the forefront of the programming, and Java, in turn,  has had a profound effect on the Internet. The reason for this is quite simple: Java expands the universe of the objects that can move  about freely in cyberspace. In a network, two very broad categories of objects are transmitted between the server and your personal computer passive information and dynamic, active program, For example, when you read your e-mail, you are viewing passive data. Even when you download a program the program's code is still only passive data until you execute it. However, a second type of object can be transmitted to your computer: a dynamic, self-executing program. Such a program is an active agent on the client computer, yet is initiated by  the server. For example, a program might be provided by the server to display properly the data that the server is sending.

As desirable as dynamic, networked programs are, they also present serious problems in the areas of security and portability. prior to Java, cyberspace was effectively closed to half the entities that now live there. Java addresses those concerns and by doing so has opened the door to an exciting new form of program: the applet.