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All issuesVolume 326, Issue 4IT NewsJava

Java At 30: A Retrospective On A Language That Has Made A Big Impact

InfoQ, Wednesday, May 28th, 2025

Thirty years ago, on May 23rd, 1995, at the Sun World conference in San Francisco, California, Sun Microsystems formally introduced the Java programming languag

Originally named Oak (reportedly due to the oak tree outside Gosling's office window), the creation of Java dates back to December 1990 as part of Sun's Green Project. Gosling, Patrick Naughton and Mike Sheridan wanted a language for consumer applications with requirements that it be architecture agnostic and object-oriented. In September 1992, they introduced Star7, a personal digital assistant that included a TV remote control and TV guide, among other features, that was operated through a user interface on a 5-inch screen.

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