Java is a popular programming platform that is used to create application software for a variety of systems and utilities including mobile devices, desktops and servers. It is considered to be the ideal choice for developing applications to be deployed in cross-platform computing environments.

Java is also regarded to be the ideal choice for embedded systems, Internet of Things and mobile phones where native applications need to be embedded to HTML pages. Together with CSS and HTML, Java is also one of the core software tools that help create a web of diverse applications.

Java Virtual Machines

Java Virtual Machines are virtual machines that execute Java bytecode programs. Each Java program used in a separate operating system will have its own JVM. JVM is like a compiler that translates the Java code into native code that the operating system can understand. There are several JVM languages like BeanShell, JRuby, Groovy, Clojure, Rhino, Jython, Gosu, etc. which forms part of the Java ecocystem for multi-platform support.

Java Platforms

Each platform of Java targets a separate application domain:

Java Card: a group of Java based-applications known as applets that can be run on smart cards and small-memory devices

Java ME (Micro Edition): Java ME specifies profiles for several devices with limited storage, power and display properties.

Java SE (Standard Edition): The most commonly edition used to create applications for desktops, server and related devices.

Java EE (Enterprise Edition): Several APIs added to Java SE which makes it powerful enough for multi-tier, client-server enterprise applications.

Java SE 7

Java SE 7 is released with features that will make coding easier for developers. Praiseworthy additions in Java SE 7 include new File System API, try-with-resource statements, multi-catch exception handling, JVM extensions, support for dynamically-typed languages and so on. 

New features in Java SE 7

Security

Security algorithm requirements are defined for Java SE 7. All Java SE 7 implementations must support these algorithm requirements as stated in the Standard Algorithm document.

Language enhancements

Deadlocks in class loading are now done away with parallel loading and finger-grained locking mechanism.

Automatic resource management

Try-with-resources statement in JDK 7 ensures that the code is closed even without calling for a finally block statement. The unnecessary spools of codes that finally block statement used to create is now removed.

Compiler optimizations

Java SE 7 makes coding easier to read and understand through Project Coin. Project Coin’s Diamond syntax ensures that the compiler is able to infer the type argument and close it using the try-with-resources statement.

Java Nio or New I/O Package

Package java.nio will define buffers which are essentially containers for various types of data. It is a collection of APIs related to Java that enable several I/O operations.

Support for dynamic languages

Java.dyn, a new package contains support for dynamic languages which is easier to write in compared to static typed languages.

Automatic null handling

‘NullPointerException’ is one of the most commonly experienced coding problems in Java. The automatic null handling operator in Java 7 will save coders from several (null!= object) instances in Java 7.