What is Java?

Posted on: April 1st, 2011

Most people encounter Java when they get a popup about the need to update it. But many has the questions “what is Java anyways?”, “do I need that?”. This article tries to shed some light on this and answer these questions.

Java in a nutshell

Java is a programming language and a system that allows software written in Java to run on any machine regardless of whether it’s a PC or Mac, or even a smart phone.

So Java is not something that you would run in itself. It’s a foundation that is needed to run other programs. Let me give a couple of examples of programs that depend on Java to run:

- The infamous Limewire file sharing software, written entirely in Java.
- OpenOffice (a free alternative to the pricey Microsoft Office): it uses Java for its macros (automated actions).
- Some websites such as www.time.gov . They are relatively rare because using Java on a website makes the page load real slow – nobody likes that.

Now, the Java updates that you get the popups about are updates to the Java Runtime Environment (aka JRE). When you look at the list of installed software on your machine that’s where you’d find those updates. JRE is the foundation that I mentioned above, it makes it possible that Java code can run on the computer. JRE seems to have pretty frequent updates.

The number of software that rely on Java is relatively low so updates, according to my experience, are not crucial.

If you want to do the update on your terms then you can simply download the JRE for your machine and install it, for example from filehippo.com. If you have a 64bit Windows then make sure to load that version. If you are not sure what are 32bit and 64bit, then click here for an article that explains it.

The JRE installer has a bad habit of putting its updater in the startup items without asking. But you can take that off by disabling it. It will be called SunJavaUpdateSched. Here’s a little writeup on how you can handle startup items: http://www.techiesguide.com/manage-windows-startup-programs-with-ccleaner.html

JavaScript: The “half brother”

You might also heard about JavaScript. It actually has little to do with Java other than the similarity of the syntax (the “grammar”) of these two languages.

JavaScript is implemented by practically every web browser and its purpose is to make web pages “lively” — make the pages more active and sensitive to user interactions. This website uses it and practically every website (with the exception of some, static ones) utilizes it to some degree. Google maps relies entirely on JavaScript to scroll the map, zoom in or out, etc. The new Yahoo mail uses JavaScript extensively to generate the list of emails, to create a text editor where you type your emails, etc. Without JavaScript many website would not even function, most of them would definitely look broken.

JavaScript is an integral part of each browser, not a separate piece of software like JRE. So there are no updates specifically for JavaScript but when the browser gets updated then its JavaScript component gets updated too (if needed).

Summary

I hope that I was able to give you a little bit more understanding about Java.

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