- Java Terms
- JDK AWT
- IDE
- API
- Class File
- Source Code
- Java Applet
- Compiler
- JavaScript
- Event Handler
JDK is command line oriented. You do all your work in DOS. Command syntax follows Unix conventions.
Java's platform-independent windowing, graphics, and user-interface toolkit.
A system for supporting the process of writing software. Such a system may include a syntax-directed editor, graphical tools for program entry, and integrated support for compiling and running the program and relating compilation errors back to the source.
The interface (calling conventions) by which an application program access's operating system and other services. An API is defined at source code level and provides a level of abstraction between the application and the kernel (or other privileged utilities) to ensure the portability of the code.
An API can also provide an interface between a high level language and lower level utilities and services which were written without consideration for the calling conventions supported by compiled languages. In this case, the API's main task may be the translation of parameter lists from one format to another and the interpretation of call-by-reference arguments in one or both directions.
The primary distinguishing feature of OOP (Object oriented languages) is the class. A class is a data structure that can associate the methods which act on an object with the object itself. In pre-OOP languages methods and data were separate. In OOP languages they are all part of classes.
The form in which a computer program is written by the programmer. Source code is written in some formal programming language which can be compiled automatically into object code or machine code or executed by an interpreter.
A program written in Java which can be distributed as an attachment in a World-Wide Web document and executed either by Sun's HotJava browser or Netscape Navigator version 2.0 or later. Navigator severely restricts what an Applet can do in terms of file system and network access in order to prevent accidental or deliberate security violations. Full Java applications which run outside of the browser do not have these restrictions.
Java applications, or applets, are different from ordinary applications in that they reside on the network in centralized servers.
A program that converts another program from some source language (or programming language) to machine language (object code). Some compilers output assembly language which is then converted to machine language by a separate assembler.
A compiler is distinguished from an assembler by the fact that each input statement does not, in general, correspond to a single machine instruction or fixed sequence of instructions. A compiler may support such features as automatic allocation of variables, arbitrary arithmetic expressions, control structures such as FOR and WHILE loops, variable scope, input/output operations, higher-order functions and portability of source code.
A scripting language for Web pages. Scripts written with JavaScript can be embedded into HTML documents. With Javascript you have many possibilities for enhancing your Web page with interesting elements. It makes it easy to respond to user initiated events (such as form input). Some effects that are now possible with JavaScript were once only possible with CGI. JavaScript gives a developer the ability to create really sophisticated Web pages.
JavaScript applications in the Navigator are largely event-driven. Events are actions that occur, usually as a result of something the user does. For example, a button click is an event, as is giving focus to a form element. There is a specific set of events that Navigator recognizes. You can define Event handlers, scripts that are automatically executed when an event occurs.
Event handlers are embedded in documents as attributes of HTML tags to which you assign JavaScript code to execute.