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The popularization of the World Wide Web helped catapult these attributes of Java into the limelight. The Internet demonstrated how interesting, media-rich content could be made accessible in simple ways. Web browsers like Mosaic enabled millions of people to roam the Net and made Web surfing part of popular culture. At last there was a medium where what you saw and heard was essentially the same whether you were on a Mac, PC or UNIX machine, connected to a high-speed network or a modem.
But with popularity comes scrutiny and soon Web enthusiasts felt that the content supported by the Web’s HTML document format was too limited. HTML extensions like forms only highlighted those limitations while making it clear that no browser could include all the features users wanted. Extensibility was the answer. At just this time the Java programming language found itself looking for another application.
Sun’s HotJava browser was developed to showcase Java’s interesting properties by making it possible to embed Java programs inside Web pages. These Java programs, known as applets, are transparently downloaded into the HotJava browser along with the HTML pages in which they appear. Before being accepted by the browser, applets are carefully checked to make sure they are safe. Like HTML pages, compiled Java programs are network- and platform-independent. Applets behave the same regardless of where they come from or what kind of machine they are being loaded into.
The Web community quickly noticed that Java was something new and important. With Java as the extension language, a Web browser could have limitless capabilities. Programmers could write an applet once and it would then run on any machine, anywhere. Visitors to Java-powered Web pages could use the content found there with confidence that nothing would damage their machine.
With applets as the initial focus, Java has demonstrated a new way to make use of the Internet to distribute software. This new paradigm goes beyond browsers. We believe it is an innovation with the potential to change the course of computing.
Java software distribution supports this new paradigm. The software is stored on the Web and can be downloaded with a click of the mouse. Java documentation is made available in the same way. It can be dowloaded from our FTP site or read on-line as HTML. With our API documentation we pioneered a method of creating large hypertext based reference documentation for distribution on the Web. But we recognize that the enormous world-wide interest in learning more about Java calls for the availability of Java books as well. Hence the Java Series.
The books in this series provide definitive reference documentation for Java programmers and end users. They are written by members of the Java team and published under the auspices of Sun Microsystems. The authors’ standards for quality, accuracy, and completeness have created books that are meant to support our users for years to come.
To learn the latest about Java or download the latest Java release, visit our World Wide
Web site at http://java.sun.com/. For updated information about the Java Series, including
sample code, errata, and previews of forthcoming books, go to http://www.javasoft.com/books/
Series/.
Our partnership with the Corporate and Professional Publishing Group at Addison- Wesley has been a big factor in the success of the Series. Our editor Mike Hendrickson and his team have done a superb job of navigating us through the world of publishing. Within Sun, the support of James Gosling, Ruth Hennigar, and Bill Joy of Sun Microsystems ensured that this series would have the resources it needed to be successful. A personal note of thanks to my children Christopher and James for putting a positive spin on the many trips to my office during the development of the Series.
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