Origin and Characteristics of Java

Java is a programming language and a platform that was developed in the early 1990s by Sun Microsystems. It allows for platform-independent bytecode to run on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), enabling applications to be written once and run on different systems. Java was designed to improve upon C++ by offering automatic memory management, a simpler syntax, and better support for threading and concurrency. Its main selling point was the concept of 'write once, run anywhere,' where Java programs could be compiled into bytecode and run on any machine with a JVM.