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To make the web more pleasant and useful, Java was created to develop special applications.

What is Java?

In 1990, Sun Microsystems had a project developed in the C++ language. The company wanted to connect interfaces and different devices so they could work together. James Gosling’s team was responsible for the project and, at the time, there were some difficulties along the way, making it more complex—because C++ was not sufficient to complete the job. So the team created its own language, known as GreenTalk, with the objective of promoting intercommunication, allowing different devices to connect.

The following year, 1991, GreenTalk was renamed to Oak, but the proposal was not successful. However, as not everything goes the way we dream, in 1994—together with the rise of HTML—the Web Runner project emerged: a browser (like Explorer or Firefox) that didn’t exist at the time, but was proposed as an interactive tool uniting implementation on the Web.

During this long historical process, Gosling’s team needed to change the name Oak, because there was already documentation with that name. That’s when the team named it Java.

Why Java?

During a meeting to organize and document the technology, the team decided that the language name should be “Coffee.” The name had great affinity with the work, since coffee was part of that group’s daily routine. But for coffee to be strong—like they were used to drinking—the beans were grown on the island of Java, Indonesia. From this idea, in some places in the United States there was slang for “Java Coffee”—not necessarily grown on the island of Java, but carrying the meaning of strong coffee, a term used by many Americans when ordering a strong coffee. Because of this meaning, the language has been called Java to this day.

When should you use Java?

This object‑oriented language—alongside C and C++—is present in your daily life, from online banking transactions, maps, chats, game execution, to image uploads. If you don’t have Java, many applications and websites may not run properly on your machine. Want another real example of Java being present in your life? You know the income tax filing done annually? Maybe no one told you, but that entire site is built with Java.

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