Table of Contents

Overview

In this tutorial, we will discuss the Java platform. Java Technology consists of the Java Programming Language and the Java Platform. The Java programming language is a high-level, object-oriented language.

Java Platform

A platform is an environment in which Java applications run/execute. There are two types of platforms hardware-based and software-based. Java Platform provides a software-based platform for running Java applications.

The Java platform differs from other platforms in the sense that it’s a software-based platform that runs on top of hardware-based platforms. Java Platform has many components like:

Java Virtual Machine
Runtime Environment
Java API (Application Programming Interface)
Java Development Tools, etc

Java Platform Overview

Java API

The Java API stands for Java Application Programming Interface. Java API provides the core functionality of the Java programming language. It is a collection of libraries (packages) of related ready-made software components that provide many useful capabilities to java programmers. Some capabilities are Networking, Database connectivity, Graphical User Interface (GUI), Security, XML parsing, etc.

Java Runtime

The Java Run-time Environment provides the minimum requirements for executing a Java application; it consists of the JVM, core classes, and supporting files.