Introduction

Four years ago, the word java conjured up images of either an Indonesian island or a hot cup of coffee. Today, anyone who has seen a Web page, computer magazine, or newspaper business section knows about another kind of Java—the programming language introduced by Sun Microsystems.

There are movie stars, athletes on crime sprees, and misbehaving politicians who receive less hype and attention than Java. The language is becoming as much a part of software development as the beverage of the same name. One kind of java keeps programmers up nights. The other enables programmers to rest easier after they develop software.

The Java programming language rose to prominence in late 1995 after Netscape licensed it for use in their Navigator browser. ...

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