CHAPTER 1

Introduction to
Computers
and Java

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 Chapter Topics
Chapter 1 discusses the following main topics:
– Introduction
– Why Program?
– Computer Systems: Hardware and Software
– Programming Languages
– What Is a Program Made Of?
– The Programming Process
– Object-Oriented Programming

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 Java History

• 1991 - Green Team started by Sun

Microsystems (now owned by Oracle).
• There was a need for a programming language
that would run on various devices.
• Java (first named Oak) was developed for this
purpose.

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 Introduction
• Java enabled web browser (HotJava)
demonstrated at 1995 Sun World conference.

• Java is “cross platform”, meaning that it can run

on various computer operating systems.

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 Programming Languages
• A program is a set of instructions a computer follows
in order to perform a task.

• A programming language is a special language used to

write computer programs.

• A computer program is a set of instructions that enable

the computer to solve a problem or perform a task.

• Collectively, these instructions form an algorithm

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 Programming Languages
• An algorithm is a set of well defined steps to
completing a task.
• The steps in an algorithm are performed sequentially.
• A computer needs the algorithm to be written in
machine language.
• Machine language is written using binary numbers.
• The binary numbering system (base 2) only has two
digits (0 and 1).

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 Programming Languages
• The binary numbers are encoded as a machine
language.
• Each CPU has its own machine language.
– Motorola 68000 series processors
– Intel x86 series processors
– ARM processors, etc.
• Example of a machine language instruction:
1011010000000101

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 Programming Languages
• High level programming languages followed
that were not processor dependent.
• Some common programming languages:
Java C Visual Basic

BASIC C++ Python

COBOL C# Ruby

Pascal PHP JavaScript

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 Programming Languages
Common Language Elements

• There are some concepts that are common to

virtually all programming languages.
• Common concepts:
– Key words
– Operators
– Punctuation
– Programmer-defined identifiers
– Strict syntactic rules.

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 Programming Languages
Sample Program

public class HelloWorld

{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
String message = "Hello World";
System.out.println(message);
}
}

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 Programming Languages
Sample Program

• Key words in the sample program are:

•public •static
•class •void
• Key words are lower case (Java is a case
sensitive language).
• Key words cannot be used as a programmer-
defined identifier.

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 Programming Languages
• Semi-colons are used to end Java statements;
however, not all lines of a Java program end a
statement.
• Part of learning Java is to learn where to
properly use the punctuation.

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 Programming Languages
Lines vs Statements

• There are differences between lines and

statements when discussing source code.
System.out.println(
message);
• This is one Java statement written using two
lines. Do you see the difference?

• A statement is a complete Java instruction that

causes the computer to perform an action.
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 Programming Languages
Variables
• Data in a Java program is stored in memory.
• Variable names represent a location in memory.
• Variables in Java are sometimes called fields.
• Variables are created by the programmer who assigns
it a programmer-defined identifier.

example: int hours = 40;

• In this example, the variable hours is created as an

integer (more on this later) and assigned the value of
40.
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 Programming Languages
Variables

• Variables are simply a name given to represent

a place in memory.
0x000
0x001
0x002
0x003
0x004
0x005
0x006
0x007

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 Programming Languages
Variables

Assume that the this

variable declaration
0x000 has been made.
The Java Virtual 0x001 int length = 72;
Machine (JVM) 0x002
actually decides 0x003 72
where the value 0x004 The variable length
will be placed 0x005 is a symbolic name
in memory. 0x006 for the memory
location 0x003.
0x007

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 The Compiler and the Java Virtual
Machine
• A programmer writes Java programming
statements for a program.
• These statements are known as source code.
• A text editor is used to edit and save a Java
source code file.
• Source code files have a .java file extension.
• A compiler is a program that translates
source code into an executable form.

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 The Compiler and the Java Virtual
Machine
• A compiler is run using a source code file as
input.
• Syntax errors that may be in the program will
be discovered during compilation.
• Syntax errors are mistakes that the programmer
has made that violate the rules of the
programming language.
• The compiler creates another file that holds the
translated instructions.

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 The Compiler and the Java Virtual
Machine
• Most compilers translate source code into
executable files containing machine code.
• The Java compiler translates a Java source file
into a file that contains byte code instructions.
• Byte code instructions are the machine
language of the Java Virtual Machine (JVM)
and cannot be executed directly by the CPU.

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 The Compiler and the Java Virtual
Machine
• Byte code files end with the .class file
extension.
• The JVM is a program that emulates a micro-
processor.
• The JVM executes instructions as they are read.
• The JVM is often called an interpreter.
• Java is often referred to as an interpreted
language.

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 Program Development Process
Saves Java statements
Text editor Source code
(.java)

Produces Byte code

Java compiler (.class)

Java Results in Program

Virtual Execution
Machine

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 Portability
• Portable means that a program may be written on one
type of computer and then run on a wide variety of
computers, with little or no modification.
• Java byte code runs on the JVM and not on any
particular CPU; therefore, compiled Java programs are
highly portable.
• JVMs exist on many platforms:
•Windows •Unix
•Mac •BSD
•Linux •Etc.

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 Portability
• With most programming languages, portability
is achieved by compiling a program for each
CPU it will run on.

• Java provides an JVM for each platform so that

programmers do not have to recompile for
different platforms.

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 Portability
Byte code
(.class)

Java Virtual Java Virtual

Machine for Windows Machine for Unix

Java Virtual Java Virtual

Machine for Linux Machine for Mac

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 Java Versions
• The software you use to write Java programs is
called the Java Development Kit, or JDK.
• There are different editions of the JDK:
– Java SE - Java Standard Edition.
– Java EE - Java Enterprise Edition.
– Java ME - Java Micro Edition.
• Available for download at
http://java.oracle.com

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