Java was really designed to be distributed on the Internet. It is very similar to code I used to develop in C++, however Java was designed to perform as an object-oriented programming model.

With Java, developers can create complete applications that run on a single computer or even create small Applets that allow users to interact with a web page. Java programs are portable and JVM (Java Virtual Machines) make it easy to interpret the bytecode of Java so that it can run on real computer hardware.

Java and its JVM allow Java code to be interpreted locally on virtually any machine making Java very robust and virtually a “stand alone programming model”.

Java uses “classes”, “objects” and “methods” for structure. An object can operate within a class and take the form of the code associated with that class and another element of the Java Programming model is called “methods” which are simply the object’s capabilities.

Java is fast and reliable as it is executed on the client side rather than the server side and quite a bit easier to learn than C++.

It certainly doesn’t hurt to know a little Python or C++ (as in my case) before starting to learn Java. The power of Java lies in its JVM which converts bytecode into executable code which optimizes its portability and speed. Billions of devices use Java!