Comparison of Java, Javascript, Java Applets and Java Beans

Comparison of Java, JavaScript, Java Applets and Java Beans

Team C

WEB 420

Introduction

Starting back in the early 1990’s with the introduction of Java to the computer scene there has been many updates and advances in how languages interact with web based programs. In this paper we are going to highlight several areas of several different Java flavors. The flavors we are addressing are Java, JavaScript, Java Applets and JavaBeans. We will discuss their history, features, usage and syntax and finally follow up with a chart providing a comparison of the different Java architectures.

History

Java, a language based on C++, was developed by James Gosling and colleagues at Sun Microsystems in the early 1990’s. (Java programming language, n.d.) It was originally called OAK and was designed for set top boxes and hand held devices. “Oak was unsuccessful so in 1995 Sun changed the name to Java and modified the language to take advantage of the burgeoning World Wide Web.” (Java, n.d.) Java is an object-oriented language simplified to eliminate language features that cause common programming languages. Java should not be confused with JavaScript, which shares only the name and a similar C-like syntax. Sun Microsystems currently maintains and updates Java regularly.

JavaScript was designed in April 1995 by Brendan Eich. It was initially developed under the name Mocha, then LiveScript and finally settled on JavaScript, coinciding with the addition of Java support in the Netscape web browser. (JavaScript, n.d.) “Spawned in 1995 by the need to make Netscape Navigator's newly added support for Java applets more accessible to non-Java programmers and web designers, a powerful scripting language too often described as ‘simple’.” (Champeon, 2001) “Netscape developed Javascript in 1995 as a way for web server administrators to connect their servers to databases and search engines, and on the client side for validating forms and providing interactive content on the HTML level.” (The History of Java, n.d.) JavaScript was originally known as LiveScript because of its dynamic nature. JavaScript was commonly used to manipulate images and document contents.

There were early issues with JavaScript; security flaws, lack of development tools and often criticized for “being too unlike Java, or too much like Perl.” (Champeon, 2001) However, JavaScript took on a life all its own and in some circles was written off due to its simpleness, its security flaws and to some extent because it could only be tested within the browser environment.

A Java Applet is a small program written in Java, which can be