Java is a popular programming language closely resembling C++, but with restrictions that help the innocent avoid frustration. A team at Sun Microsystems invented Java, and Sun remains its guiding authority.
Java programs don’t compile to a processor’s native instruction set; instead, they compile to the instruction set of an imaginary computer called the Java Virtual Machine. Java programs are portable to any type of computer and any operating system that has a virtual machine emulator. The emulator is a piece of software that carries out Java Virtual Machine instructions using local native instructions so that the compiled Java program can run.