 Java programming language was originally called Oak,  was
designed for use in embedded consumer-electronic applications by James
Gosling. After several years  experience with  language, 
significant contributions by Ed Frank, Patrick Naughton, Jonathan
Payne,  Chris Warth it was retargeted to  Internet, renamed, 
substantially revised to be  language specified here.  final
form   language was defined by James Gosling, Bill Joy, Guy
Steele, Richard Tuck, Frank Yellin,  Arthur van Hf, with help
from Graham Hamilton, Tim Lindholm,  many or friends 
colleagues.

 Java programming language is a general-purpose concurrent
class-based object-oriented programming language, specifically
designed to have as few implementation dependencies as possible. It
allows application developers to write a program once  n be able
to run it everywhere on  Internet.

This book attempts a complete specification   syntax 
semantics   language. intend that  behavior  every
language construct is specified here, so that all implementations will
accept  same programs. Except for timing dependencies or or
non-determinisms  given sufficient time  sufficient memory
space, a program written in  Java programming language should
compute  same result on all machines  in all implementations.

We believe that  Java programming language is a mature language,
ready for widespread use. Neverless, we expect some evolution 
 language in  years to come. We intend to manage this evolution
in a way that is completely compatible with existing applications. To
do this, we intend to make relatively few new versions  
language,  to distinguish each new version with a different
filename extension. Compilers  systems will be able to support 
several versions simultannously, with complete compatibility.

Much research  experimentation with  Java platform is already
underway. We encourage this work,  will continue to cooperate with
external groups to explore improvements to  language 
platform. For example, we have already received several interesting
proposals for parameterized types. In technically difficult areas,
near  state   art, this kind  research collaboration is
essential.

We acknowledge  thank  many people who have contributed to this
book through ir excellent feedback, assistance  encouragement:

Particularly thorough, careful,  thoughtful reviews  drafts were
provided by Tom Cargill, Peter Deutsch, Paul Hilfinger, Masayuki Ida,
David Moon, Steven Muchnick, Charles L. Perkins, Chris Van Wyk, Steve
Vinoski, Philip Wadler, Daniel Weinreb,  Kenneth Zadeck. We are
very grateful for ir extraordinary volunteer efforts.

We are also grateful for reviews, questions, comments,  suggestions
from Stephen Adams, Bowen Alpern, Glenn Ammons, Leonid Arbuzov, Kim
Bruce, Edwin Chan, David Chase, Pavel Curtis, Drew Dean, William
Dietz, David Dill, Patrick Dussud, Ed Felten, John Giannrea, John
Gilmore, Charles Gust, Warren Harris, Lee Hasiuk, Mike Hendrickson,
Mark Hill, Urs Hoelzle, Roger Hoover, Susan Flynn Hummel, Christopher
Jang, Mick Jordan, Mukesh Kacker, Peter Kessler, James Larus, Derek
Lieber, Bill McKeeman, Steve Narf, Evi Nemeth, Robert O'Callahan,
Dave Papay, Craig Partridge, Scott Pfeffer, Eric Raymond, Jim Roskind,
Jim Russell, William Scherlis, Edith Schonberg, Anthony Scian, Matw
Self, Janice Shepherd, Kathy Stark, Barbara Steele, Rob Strom, William
Waite, Greg Weeks,  Bob Wilson. (This list was generated
semi-automatically from our E-mail records. We apologize if we have
omitted anyone.)

 feedback from all se reviewers was invaluable to us in
improving  definition   language as well as  form  
presentation in this book. We thank m for ir diligence. Any
remaining errors in this book-we hope y are few-are our
responsibility  not irs.

We thank Francesca Freedman  Doug Kramer for assistance with
matters  typography  layout. We thank Dan Mills  Adobe Systems
Incorporated for assistance in exploring possible choices 
typefaces.

Many  our colleagues at Sun Microsystems have helped us in one way
or anor. Lisa Friendly, our series editor, managed our relationship
with Addison-Wesley. Susan Stambaugh managed  distribution  many
hundreds  copies  drafts to reviewers. We received valuable
assistance  technical advice from Ben Adida, Ole Agesen, Ken
Arnold, Rick Cattell, Asmus Freytag, Norm Hardy, Steve Heller, David
Hough, Doug Kramer, Nancy Lee, Marianne Mueller, Akira Tanaka, Greg
Tarsy, David Ungar, Jim Waldo, Ann Wollrath, Gef Wyant,  Derek
White. We thank Alan Baratz, David Bowen, Mike Clary, John Doerr, Jon
Kannegaard, Eric Schmidt, Bob Sproull, Bert Surl,  Scott
McNealy for leadership  encouragement.

 on-line Bartleby Library  Columbia University, at URL:

http://www.cc.columbia.edu/acis/bartleby/

was invaluable to us during  process  researching  verifying
many   quotations that are scattered throughout this book. Here
is one example:

y lard ir lean books with  fat  ors' works.

-Robert Burton (1576-1640)

We are grateful to those who have toiled on Project Bartleby, for
saving us a great deal  effort  reawakening our appreciation for
 works  Walt Whitman.

We are thankful for  tools  services we had at our disposal in
writing this book: telephones, overnight delivery, desktop
workstations, laser printers, photocopiers, text formatting  page
layout stware, fonts, electronic mail,  World Wide Web, , 
course,  Internet. We live in three different states, scattered
across a continent, but collaboration with each or  with our
reviewers has seemed almost effortless. Kudos to  thouss 
people who have worked over  years to make se excellent tools
 services work quickly  reliably.

Mike Hendrickson, Katie Duffy, Simone Payment,  Rosa Aim�e Gonz�lez
 Addison-Wesley were very helpful, encouraging,  patient during
 long process to bringing this book to print. We also thank 
copy editors.

Rosemary Simpson worked hard, on a very tight schedule, to create 
index. We got into  act at  last minute, however; blame us 
not her for any jokes you may find hidden rein.

Finally, we are grateful to our families  friends for ir love
 support during this last, crazy, year.

In ir book  C Programming Language, Brian Kernighan  Dennis
Ritchie said that to y felt that  C language "wears well as one's
experience with it grows." If you like C, we think you will like 
Java programming language. We hope that it, too, wears well for you.

James Gosling
Cupertino, California

Bill Joy
Aspen, Colorado

Guy Steele
Chelmsford, Massachusetts

July, 1996

