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FridaTveit merged 5 commits into from
Oct 22, 2017
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Rework the "About the Java Track" page - #347 #959

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#347 - Rework the "About the Java Track" page
RhuanKrum Oct 17, 2017
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Merge pull request #1 from RhuanKrum/RhuanKrum-#347-rewriting-java-about
RhuanKrum Oct 17, 2017
0f78353
Rework the "About the Java Track" page
RhuanKrum Oct 17, 2017
cc6af6f
Rework the "About the Java Track" page
RhuanKrum Oct 21, 2017
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Merge pull request #2 from RhuanKrum/Rework-the-"About-the-Java-Track…
RhuanKrum Oct 21, 2017
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44 changes: 13 additions & 31 deletions docs/ABOUT.md
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[Java](https://go.java/index.html) is among the most popular available programming languages, thanks to its versatility and compatibility.
It is widely used for software development, mobile applications and developing larger systems.

[Java](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_(programming_language)) is a general-purpose computer programming language that is:
1. [Concurrent](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concurrent_computing)
2. [Class-Based](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class-based_programming)
3. [Object-Oriented](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object-oriented_programming)
Java was born in 1995 and is maintained by [Oracle](https://www.oracle.com/index.html).
Despite the fact that it isn't as young as some of the fresh languages out there, Java is still really popular.
It was designed to be fast, secure, reliable, beginner-friendly and highly portable.
This portability perk exists because Java is executed on a cross-platform compatible [Java Virtual Machine - JVM](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_virtual_machine).
Android apps are also developed using Java, since the [Android Operating System](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(operating_system)) runs on a Java language environment.

Java applications are typically compiled to [bytecode](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bytecode) that can run on any [Java virtual machine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_virtual_machine) (JVM) regardless of computer architecture.
The Java community is huge!
GitHub for example has over 1.5 million Java projects.
It's also worth mentioning that Java has the second largest community in [StackOverflow](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/java)!
This is important because the larger a programming language community is, the more support you'd be likely to get.

The primary goals kept in mind during the making of the language were:
Java also has a powerful and well-designed set of built-in [APIs - Application Programming Interfaces](https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/), which can be used for various activities like Database connection, networking, I/O, XML parsing, utilities, and much more.

- It must be simple, object-oriented, and familiar.
- It must be robust and secure.
- It must be architecture-neutral and portable.
- It must execute with high performance.
- It must be interpreted, threaded, and dynamic.

The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++, but it has fewer low-level facilities than either of them.

## Why Learn Java?

- JAVA IS EVERYWHERE.
It is one of the most sought after programming languages.
It is a standard for enterprise software, web-based content, games and mobile apps, as well as the [Android operating system](https://developer.android.com/index.html).

- [Write once, run anywhere](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Write_once,_run_anywhere) policy: Programs written in Java are compiled into machine-independent bytecodes, so it can run on any Java platform.
Basically, Java is [Platform Independent](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-platform#Platform-independent_software)

- Java has rich APIs:
Java has built-in [application programming interfaces](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_programming_interface) (APIs) for I/O, networking, data structures, concurrency, and many other functions.
Standard libraries can be supplemented by open source libraries like Apache Commons, Google Guava, Netty and others.
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@FridaTveit FridaTveit Oct 18, 2017

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I think this bit about the Java API is quite important. Java has a really good API with really good documentation which makes it a lot easier to use. So it might be worth mentioning something about that, possibly linking to the API docs as well: https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/ :)

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@RhuanKrum RhuanKrum Oct 21, 2017

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I added a paragraph about the APIs as you suggested. My bad for not including it before, thanks for that!


- Standardization:
If you need to write a web/enterprise app, or you need data persistence or you need to do cryptography, no problem!
Java is all you require.
There are many standard tools/practices that extend the Java ecosystem, thanks to the [Java Community Process](https://www.jcp.org/en/introduction/overview) (JCP)!
From laptops to datacenters, game consoles to scientific supercomputers, cell phones to the Internet, [Java is everywhere](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Write_once,_run_anywhere)!