The following is taken from the English Wikipedia:

Java is a type of programming language developed by Sun Microsystems.  Many platforms since the middle 90's have used Java as their computer language as it is reliable and creates safe platforms that are password protected.  It is mainly used as an object oriented programming tool which is what makes it different from C++, which is where Java is derived from.

For more information from Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_%28programming_language%29 

07 May, 2008/ 10:15 MEZ