The beginning
YAJC Java
Let's begin with the first step you need to take to start your journey!
A Java program (you will create one soon) is a set of instructions you will run on Java Virtual Machine (JVM).
JVM is a separate application and you need to download and install it on your computer.
There are 2 types of JVM distribution:
- JRE - Java Runtime Edition
- JDK - Java Development Kit
Regular users would use JRE, it has the basic set of functionality. You want use it to run a Java program.
For development purposes you need JDK. This includes a lot of useful applications as well as JRE (you don't need to download both separately 😎).
There are a lot of manuals how to install JDK (you can google it), so I will not rewrite it but leave a link to an article:
https://www.guru99.com/install-java.html
JVM vendor
JVM is detailed by a specification. It means that there is a set of rules and if an application implements the rules/specification it could be called a JVM implementation.
There are many implementations of JVMs. To study you can choose any popular one like:
- OpenJDK
- Azul Zulu
- HotSpot
The latest Java version by this time is 16 released on March. Many companies still use 7 or 8. You can use 8 or 9 as these versions have the necessary language feature commonly used at work.
Tip: we highly recommend you to get acquainted with some Linux operating system, it's much more convenient to develop applications using them. This will be covered in a separate post.