Home Whiteboard Online Compilers Practice Articles AI Assistant
Chapters Categories
SQL HTML CSS Javascript Python Java C C++ PHP Scala
Java - History
History of Java
Java programming language was originally developed by Sun Microsystems which was
initiated by James Gosling and released in 1995 as core component of Sun
Microsystems' Java platform (Java 1.0 [J2SE]). History of even naming of the Java is
very interesting. It went under many names.
Advertisement
-
Java Name History
GreenTalk
James Gosling was leading a team named as 'Green' team. Target of this team was to
create a new language which can work on multiple electronic devices seemlessly.
Initially C++ was the original choice to develop the project. James Gosling wanted to
enhance C++ to achieve the target but due to high memory usage, that idea was
rejected and team started with a new language initially named as GreenTalk. The file
extension used as .gt. Later this language was termed as Oak and finally to Java.
Oak
James Gosling renamed language to Oak. There was an Oak tree in front of his office.
James Gosling used this name as Oak represents solidarity and Oak tree is the
national tree of multiple countries like USA, France, Romania etc. But Oak
technologies already had Oak as a trademark and James team had to brainstrom
another title for the language.
Finally Java
Team put multiple names like DNA, Silk, Ruby and Java. Java was finalized by the
team. James Gosling tabled Java title based on type of espresso coffee bean. Java is
an island in Indonesia where new coffee was discovered termed as Java coffee. As per
James Gosling, Java was among the top choice along with Silk. Finally Java was
selected as it was quite unique and represented the essence of being
dynamic,revolutionary and fun to say.
Sun released the first public implementation as Java 1.0 in 1995. It promised Write
Once, Run Anywhere (WORA), providing no-cost run-times on popular platforms.
On 13 November, 2006, Sun released much of Java as free and open source software
under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL).
On 8 May, 2007, Sun finished the process, making all of Java's core code free and
open-source, aside from a small portion of code to which Sun did not hold the
copyright.
The latest release of the Java Standard Edition is Java SE 21. With the advancement
of Java and its widespread popularity, multiple configurations were built to suit various
types of platforms. For example: J2EE for Enterprise Applications, J2ME for Mobile
Applications.
Java Versions History
Over the period of nearly 30 years, Java has seen many minor and major versions.
Following is a brief explaination of versions of java till date.
Sr.No. Version Date Description
1 JDK Beta 1995 Initial Draft version
23
2 JDK 1.0 Jan A stable variant JDK 1.0.2 was termed as JDK 1
1996
19
Major features like JavaBeans, RMI, JDBC, inner
3 JDK 1.1 Feb
classes were added in this release.
1997
Swing, JIT Compiler, Java Modules, Collections
8 Dec
4 JDK 1.2 were introduced to JAVA and this release was a great
1998
success.
8 May HotSpot JVM, JNDI, JPDA, JavaSound and support for
5 JDK 1.3
2000 Synthetic proxy classes were added.
Image I/O API to create/read JPEG/PNG image were
6 Feb added. Integrated XML parser and XSLT processor
6 JDK 1.4
2002 (JAXP) and Preferences API were other important
updates.
30
JDK 1.5 Various new features were added to the language like
7 Sep
or J2SE 5 foreach, var-args, generics etc.
2004
11 1. notation was dropped to SE and upgrades done to
JAVA SE
8 Dec JAXB 2.0, JSR 269 support and JDBC 4.0 support
6
2006 added.
Support for dynamic languages added to JVM. Another
JAVA SE 7 Jul
9 enhancements included string in switch case,
7 2011
compressed 64 bit pointers etc.
18 Support for functional programming added. Lambda
JAVA SE
10 Mar expressions, streams, default methods, new
8
2014 date-time APIs introduced.
21
JAVA SE Module system introduced which can be applied to
11 Sep
9 JVM platform.
2017
Unicode language-tag extensions added. Root
20
JAVA SE certificates, threadlocal handshakes, support for heap
12 Mar
10 allocation on alternate memory devices etc were
2018
introduced.
Dynamic class-file constants, Epsilon a no-op garbage
JAVA SE 5 Sep
13 collector, local-variable support in lambda parameters,
11 2018
Low-overhead heap profiling support added.
19 Experimental Garbage Collector,Shenandoah: A Low-
JAVA SE
14 Mar Pause-Time Garbage Collector, Microbenchmark Suite,
12
2019 JVM Constants API added.
17
JAVA SE Feature added - Text Blocks (Multiline strings),
15 Sep
13 Enhanced Thread-local handshakes.
2019
17 Feature added - Records, a new class type for
JAVA SE
16 Mar modelling, Pattern Matching for instanceof,
14
2020 Intuitive NullPointerException handling.
15
JAVA SE Feature added - Sealed Classes, Hidden Classes,
17 Sep
15 Foreign Function and Memory API (Incubator).
2020
16 Feature added as preview - Records, Pattern Matching
JAVA SE
18 Mar for switch, Unix Domain Socket Channel (Incubator)
16
2021 etc.
Feature added as finalized - Sealed Classes, Pattern
14
JAVA SE Matching for instanceof, Strong encapsulation of JDK
19 Sep
17 internals by default. New macOS rendering pipeline
2021
etc.
22 Feature added - UTF-8 by Default, Code Snippets in
JAVA SE
20 Mar Java API Documentation, Vector API (Third incubator),
18
2022 Foreign Function, Memory API (Second Incubator) etc.
20
JAVA SE Feature added - Record pattern, Vector API (Fourth
21 Sep
19 incubator), Structured Concurrency (Incubator) etc.
2022
Feature added - Scoped Values (Incubator), Record
21
JAVA SE Patterns (Second Preview), Pattern Matching for switch
22 Mar
20 (Fourth Preview),Foreign Function & Memory API
2023
(Second Preview) etc.
19 Feature added - String Templates (Preview),
JAVA SE
22 Sep Sequenced Collections, Generational ZGC, Record
21
2023 Patterns, Pattern Matching for switch etc.
Feature added - Region Pinning for G1 garbage
19 collector, foreign functions and memory APIs , multi-
Java SE
23 Mar file source code programs support, string templates,
22
2024 vector apis (seventh incubator), unnamed variables,
patterns, stream gatherers (first preview) etc.
Feature added - Primitive types in patterns, class file
17
Java SE APIs, vector APIs (Eighth incubator), stream gatherers
24 Sep
23 (second preview), ZDC, generation mode by default
2024
etc.
TOP TUTORIALS
Python Tutorial
Java Tutorial
C++ Tutorial
C Programming Tutorial
C# Tutorial
PHP Tutorial
R Tutorial
HTML Tutorial
CSS Tutorial
JavaScript Tutorial
SQL Tutorial
TRENDING TECHNOLOGIES
Cloud Computing Tutorial
Amazon Web Services Tutorial
Microsoft Azure Tutorial
Git Tutorial
Ethical Hacking Tutorial
Docker Tutorial
Kubernetes Tutorial
DSA Tutorial
Spring Boot Tutorial
SDLC Tutorial
Unix Tutorial
CERTIFICATIONS
Business Analytics Certification
Java & Spring Boot Advanced Certification
Data Science Advanced Certification
Cloud Computing And DevOps
Advanced Certification In Business Analytics
Artificial Intelligence And Machine Learning
DevOps Certification
Game Development Certification
Front-End Developer Certification
AWS Certification Training
Python Programming Certification
COMPILERS & EDITORS
Online Java Compiler
Online Python Compiler
Online Go Compiler
Online C Compiler
Online C++ Compiler
Online C# Compiler
Online PHP Compiler
Online MATLAB Compiler
Online Bash Terminal
Online SQL Compiler
Online Html Editor
ABOUT US | OUR TEAM | CAREERS | JOBS | CONTACT US | TERMS OF USE |
PRIVACY POLICY | REFUND POLICY | COOKIES POLICY | FAQ'S
Tutorials Point is a leading Ed Tech company striving to provide the best learning material
on technical and non-technical subjects.
© Copyright 2025. All Rights Reserved.
