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Lecture notes · chapter 1
Language overview
What Java is, what a source file is, and the rules that are not up for debate.
1.1 Introduction
Java is an interpreted, portable, object-oriented, strongly typed, safe, frugal and multithreaded language.
There are (roughly) two major Java implementations: OpenJDK and Oracle JDK.
1.2 Program and source
A Java program is made of one (or, more generally, several) source file(s). These files have the extension .java.
This is exactly what the workshop on this site does: the tab Exercices.java contains public class Exercices. Rename one, and you must rename the other.
1.3 Basic rules
- Java is a case-sensitive language:
canardis not the same thing asCAnArd. - Blocks of code are enclosed in braces. Each instruction ends with a
;(semicolon). - An instruction can span several lines: the compiler ignores indentation.
The compiler only sees the semicolons
int variable
=
0;
Comments are ignored by the compiler.
// Single-line comment
/* Comment
over
several
lines. */
A first complete program, to run
public class Demo {
public static void main(String[] args) {
// One instruction, one semicolon.
System.out.println("Hello, world!");
}
}