One obvious advantage is a runtime environment that provides platform independence: you can use the same code on Windows, Solaris, Linux, Macintosh, and so on. This is certainly necessary when programs are downloaded over the Internet to run on a variety of platforms. Another coding advantage is that Java has a syntax similar to that of C++, making it easy for C and C++ programmers to learn. Then again, Visual Basic programmers will probably find the syntax annoying.Java graphics notes_icon

If you are coming from a language other than C++, some of the terms used in this section will be less familiar-just skip those sections. You will be comfortable with all of these terms by the end of .Java is also fully object oriented-even more so than C++. Everything in Java, except for a few basic types like numbers, is an object. (Object-oriented coding has replaced earlier structured techniques because it has many advantages for dealing with sophisticated projects. If you are not familiar with Object-oriented programming, through provide what you need to know.) However, having yet another, somewhat improved, dialect of C++ would not be enough. The key point is this: It is far easier to turn out bug-free code using Java than using C++. Why? The designers of Java thought hard about what makes C++ code so buggy. They added features to Java that eliminate the possibility of creating code with the most common kinds of bugs.

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The Java language specification is public. You can find it on the Web at .