Since its inception in 1995 by Sun Microsystems, this language has become the basis of millions of applications.
According to Oracle, nearly 3 billion devices regardless of platform (Windows, Mac OS, UNIX, Android) use Java for programming. Besides, even in areas such as enterprise solutions and embedded systems, Java has left its mark.
Currently, the Java programming language is one of the most widely used languages and is rapidly emerging in the software world. We find a variety of Java applications in almost every field, be it application or website development, big data, artificial intelligence, mobile development, etc.
- DESKTOP APPLICATIONS
Java provides many features that help us create GUI applications. Java provides AWT, Swing API or Java Foundation Classes, or the latest version of JavaFX (starting with Java 8). These APIs or features help us build advanced GUI applications, including tree-making applications and even 3D graphics.
The real-life tools are Acrobat Reader & Thinkfree - MOBILE APPLICATIONS
Java provides a feature called J2ME, a cross-platform mobile application development platform that can run on Java-enabled smartphones and regular phones.
One of the popular Android mobile operating systems was developed using the Java-based Android SDK.
The real-life tools are Netflix, Google Maps, Uber, etc. - WEB APPLICATIONS
Java provides website development features as well as Servlets, Struts, Spring, Hibernate, JSP, and more that enable us to create highly secure software with ease.
The real-life tools are Amazon, Flipkart, Wayfair, etc. - EMBEDDED SYSTEMS
Embedded systems are low-level systems that are part of larger electromechanical systems. These are tiny microchips, processors, etc. They are also called integrated systems. Java can build robust tools that can handle application exceptions efficiently and quickly because they are better suited for low-level programming.
The real-life tools are Sim Cards, Car entertainment systems, etc. - SCIENTIFIC APPLICATIONS
Java has powerful security and reliability features that make it popular in scientific application development. Java also provides advanced math that produces the same results across platforms.
Mat Lab is one of the greatest examples of scientific application.
TOP 5 REAL-LIFE JAVA-BASED APPLICATIONS
Now let’s dive into the list of greatest Java apps ever written:
- NASA WorldWind
Rocket researchers made it free to everyone by providing open-source NASA WorldWind, a virtual globe SDK that allows developers to add the US Space Agency’s geographic rendering engine to their Java, web, or Android applications. Going far beyond Google Earth, WorldWind geospatial data is generated by NASA engineers who render terrain from elevation models and other data sources. According to the website, organizations around the world are using WorldWind to track weather conditions, visualize cities and terrain, track vehicle movements, analyze geospatial data, and educate mankind about the Earth. - Minecraft
The serene environment of this game, which includes biomes, people, and houses you build with blocks, has a timeless charm for children and adults across the world, making it the most popular video game ever. Minecraft and its 3D universe, developed in Java by Markus “Notch” Persson and released in alpha in 2009, is a never-ending source of creativity as no two worlds are alike. The use of Java in video games also allows developers at home and at school to create their mods. - Wikipedia
It is enough that a human-made encyclopedia for humans should run on open source software and include a Java-based search engine. Lucene, written by Doug Cutting in 1999 and named after his wife’s middle name, was Cutting’s fifth search engine. He created the rest as an engineer at Xerox PARC, Apple, and Excite. In 2014, Wikipedia replaced the Lucene Elasticsearch engine with a distributed RESTful search engine, also written in Java. - HADOOP
Inspired by a Google Research Paper describing the MapReduce algorithm for processing data to large clusters of commodity computers, Doug Cutting wrote an open-source framework for MapRedUs operations in Java and named it Hadoop after his son’s toy elephant. HADOOP 1.0 was published in 2006, with great data development. This inspired many companies to collect “data lines”. This strategy for mining from their “data exhaust”, described data as “the new oil”. By 2008, Yahoo claimed, its search in the web folder, which was carried out on a Linux cluster of 10,000 cores, was the largest producer of this data oil. By 2012, Facebook claimed more than 100 petabytes of data about the largest HADOOP cluster in the world. - Maestro Mars Rover Controller
In 2004, Java became the first programming language to make the mankind reach another planet. For three months this year, NASA scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, used the Java-based Maestro Science Activity Planner, created by the JPL Robot Interface Lab, to fly the Spirit Mars Exploration Rover while exploring the red planet. The Java experiments began many years ago at JPL with the creation of a command and control system for Mars Sojourner in 1995. Java founder James Gosling spent so much time at JPL that he became a member of the advisory board.
Conclusion
As we saw in this article, Java is the most popular language in the software world today, and you can find its applications in almost every area. Due to its high performance and reliability as well as security features, Java is mainly used in banking applications.
Java is also becoming the language of choice in the big data field and is fashionable today. After watching Java applications in future tutorials, we’ll cover the main differences between Java and a few other programming languages before delving into Java-related topics in detail.
