Mans transfer from Sun offsite. Part 1

Back in September last year, when I started learning Java, I came across the Hungry podcast “The Art Of Programming” . In one of them, he praised the manuals? located on the offsite Sun. Having spent quite a long time with the dictionary and IDE, I achieved some result.
Recently the thought came that people who are not fluent in English cannot use this resource, no matter how good it is.
Below is the translation of the first article (it is small), and for the habrau there is a question: how do you assess the quality / feasibility of such a translation?

PS I publish on the JAVA blog, because I can’t publish it in “Startup Programmer”
PPS For practical advice in translation thanks miravingin


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About Java technology

The concept of Java technology is equally applicable to both the programming language and the platform.

Java as a programming language

The Java programming language is a high-level language that can be characterized by any of these words:

• Object oriented
• Plain
• Common
• Multithreaded
• High performance
• Platform independent
• Portable
• Protected

Each epithet is explained in detail here . More we will look at later.
In the Java programming language, source codes are initially stored in plain text in files with the .java extension. These sources are compiled into files with the .class extension, the code of which is by no means native ¹ for the processor of your computer. Instead, the files contain bytecode — the machine language of the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). Next, your application runs on your computer while working in a virtual machine.

How the software development process looks like:


Since the Java Virtual Machine is available on different operating systems, the same .class files can work under Microsoft Windows, under the Solaris ^TM Operating System (Solaris OS), under Linux, or under Mac OS. Some Java machines (for example, the Java HotSpot virtual machine ) perform additional actions to increase the speed of the application. An example of such actions: finding and correcting not very successful code sections and recompilation (into native code) of frequently repeated code sections.

Using JVM, the same applications function on different platforms:


Java platform

Under the platform, we usually understand the hardware or software environment in which the program works. We have already mentioned some of the most popular platforms, such as Microsoft Windows, Solaris OS, Linux and Mac OS. Most platforms can be described as a combination of the operating system and basic equipment, but the Java platform is an exclusively software platform that runs on top of others.

The Java platform consists of two main parts:

• The Java Virtual Machine (JVM) - Java Virtual Machine
• The Java Application Programming Interface (API) —The Interface of an Application Program (the interface through which an application gains access to the operating system and other services).

You already have an idea of ​​what the JVM is : it is the basis of the Java platform and is portable to a variety of hardware platforms.

In turn, the API is a collection of ready-made software components that provide various useful features. Components are grouped into libraries of similar classes and interfaces. These libraries are called packages . The next article, “What Can Java Technology?” , Will highlight some of the features provided by the API.

The API and JVM isolate the program from the equipment used:


As a platform-independent technology, the Java platform may run a little slower than machine code, however, advances in compiler development and virtual machine technologies allow for performance that is close to machine code indicators without affecting the mobility of the application being developed.

To be continued ...