Why Choose Java?

Java was designed with a few key principles in mind:

Easy to Use: The fundamentals of Java came from a programming language called c++. Although c++ is a powerful language, it was felt to be too complex in its syntax, and inadequate for all of Java's requirements. Java built on, and improved the ideas of c++, to provide a programming language that was powerful and simple to use.

Reliability: Java needed to reduce the likelihood of fatal errors from programmer mistakes. With this in mind, object-oriented programming was introduced. Once data and its manipulation were packaged together in one place, it increased Java's robustness.

Secure: As Java was originally targeting mobile devices that would be exchanging data over networks, it was built to include a high level of security. Java is probably the most secure programming language to date.

Platform Independent: Programs needed to work regardless of the machine they were being executed on. Java was written to be a portable language that doesn't care about the operating system or the hardware of the computer.

The team at Sun Microsystems were successful in combining these key principles, and Java's popularity can be traced to it being a robust, secure, easy to use, and portable language.