Java

The Java programming language, developed by Sun Microsystems, is a language aimed at allowing high performance, cross-platform application development.

Java source files (.java files) are typically compiled to an intermediate bytecode language (.class files) and executed by a Java Virtual Machine. Most modern JVMs further compile the bytecode of a Java program into your processors' native machine code during execution. This native code translation is done via a JIT compiler that is built-in to the JVM. Some Java compilers (such as GCJ) can compile Java code to native machine code ahead-of-time rather than just-in-time.

The primary benefits of Java are:

Cross-platform (Write Once, Run Anywhere)
High performance (Java code running with a modern JIT is often comparable to the speed of C++)
Comprehensive class library
Automatic memory management
Huge user community
Well supported by the open-source community and commercial industry (Sun, IBM, Oracle, HP, BEA, Apple, etc.)

Java is used in a variety of environments including desktop applications, embedded device (PDA and wireless phone) applications, server-side web page serving applications (as JSP) and applets embedded in web pages.

According to a variety of sources, Java is currently the most popular programming language in the world.

Useful Java links: