14 Part I: Getting Started Getting Perspective: Where
14 Part I: Getting Started Getting Perspective: Where Java Fits In Here s a brief history of modern computer programming: 1954 1957: FORTRAN is developed. FORTRAN was the first modern computer programming language. For scientific programming, FORTRAN is a real racehorse. Year after year, FORTRAN is a leading language among computer programmers throughout the world. 1959: COBOL is created. The letter B in COBOL stands for Business, and business is just what COBOL is all about. The language s primary feature is the processing of one record after another, one customer after another, or one employee after another. Within a few years after its initial development, COBOL became the most widely used language for business data processing. Even today, COBOL represents a large part of the computer programming industry. 1972: Dennis Ritchie at AT&T Bell Labs develops the C programming language. The look and feel that you see in this book s examples come from the C programming language. Code written in C uses curly braces, ifstatements, forstatements, and so on. In terms of power, you can use C to solve the same problems that you can solve by using FORTRAN, Java, or any other modern programming language. (You can write a scientific calculator program in COBOL, but doing that sort of thing would feel really strange.) The difference between one programming language and another isn t power. The difference is ease and appropriateness of use. That s where the Java language excels. 1986: Bjarne Stroustrup (again at AT&T Bell Labs) develops C++. Unlike its C language ancestor, the language C++ supports object-oriented programming. This represents a huge step forward. (See the next section in this chapter.) May 23, 1995: Sun Microsystems releases its first official version of the Java programming language. Java improves upon the concepts in C++. Java s Write Once, Run Anywhere philosophy makes the language ideal for distributing code across the Internet. In addition, Java is a great general-purpose programming language. With Java, you can write windowed applications, build and explore databases, control handheld devices, and more. Within five short years, the Java
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