Java

   An  object-oriented  language  originally  developed  at Sun by James
   Gosling (and known by the name "Oak") with the intention of being the
   successor to {C++} (the project was however originally sold to Sun as
   an  embedded  language  for  use  in  set-top boxes). After the great
   Internet   explosion   of   1993-1994,   Java   was   hacked  into  a
   byte-interpreted  language  and became the focus of a relentless hype
   campaign  by  Sun,  which touted it as the new language of choice for
   distributed applications.

   Java  is  indeed  a stronger and cleaner design than C++ and has been
   embraced  by  many  in  the  hacker  community  --  but it has been a
   considerable  source  of  frustration  to  many  others,  for reasons
   ranging  from  uneven  support  on  different  Web browser platforms,
   performance  issues,  and  some notorious deficiencies in some of the
   standard  toolkits  (AWT  in  particular).  {Microsoft}'s  determined
   attempts  to  corrupt the language (which it rightly sees as a threat
   to  its  OS  monopoly)  have not helped. As of 2003, these issues are
   still in the process of being resolved.

   Despite  many  attractive features and a good design, it is difficult
   to  find  people willing to praise Java who have tried to implement a
   complex,  real-world  system with it (but to be fair it is early days
   yet,  and  no  other  language  has  ever  been  forced  to spend its
   childhood  under  the limelight the way Java has). On the other hand,
   Java  has  already been a big {win} in academic circles, where it has
   taken  the  place  of {Pascal} as the preferred tool for teaching the
   basics of good programming to the next generation of hackers.

[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {C++}{languages of choice}]