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A

ASCII : way of encoding computer characters

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American Standard Code for Information Interchange. Standard way of storing data in computers. Originally a 7 bit code which was limited to mainly the english language but there are extended 8 bit versions that support some of the characters used in European languages. To overcome the limitations of an 8 bit encoding Java supports the Unicode character set that uses multiple bytes and thus can support just about all character sets. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII
Keyword(s):

autoboxing: automatic conversion between wrappers and primitive

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Autoboxing was introduced with JDK 1.5 and allows for the automatic conversion between wrappers and primitives without having to call methods. To read more see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autoboxing
Keyword(s):

B

belonging to the class, not an instance of a class

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the word static indicates that something belongs to a class (the blueprint for an object) rather than an instance of a class. This has subtle implications. For example if the value of a classes static field is modified it will be modified for all instances of that class.

For more information see http://mindprod.com/jgloss/static.html
Keyword(s):

C

constructor : method called automatically on class construction

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a method that runs automatically when an instance of a class is created. A Java constructor has the same name as the class but with no return type.
Keyword(s):

E

encapsulation: separation of interface from implementation

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The separation of interface from implementation through the process of data hiding. Typically in Java this involves assigning the private specifier to class fields and creating mutator and accessor methods for modifying those fields. These methods are sometimes called getter and setter as the convention is to give them the prefix get to retrieve values and set to update the values. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_hiding
Keyword(s):

I

implements : an interface will be used

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The implements keyword is used to indicate an interface will be used. It is used in the same place that the extends keyword is used when inheriting the functionality of another class. More information about the use of interfaces can be found in the Sun Java tutorial at

http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/java/interpack/createinterface.html
Keyword(s):

J

java archive; multiple java files wrapped into a single container file

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The term JAR file is an acronym for Java Archive, which is a file containing multiple Java related files. The contents of a jar file is not restricted to .class files and can contain files such as xml configuration, icons and any other files that may be needed to run a Java program. Internally a jar file uses the zip file format that is has been used to compress files to allow them to to be more quickly transferred over networks. For more information see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jar_(file_format)
Keyword(s):

Java Development Kit

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The Sun Java Development Kit (JDK) is the freely downloadable set of tools for developing and running Java programs. It contains the Java Runtime Environment (JRE), which can be downloaded separatly if all you want to do is run Java code and not create new programs.

The JDK is given a number for the release version, e.g. JDK 1.1, JDK 1.2, JDK 1.4 and JDK 1.5. Sun also gives an overall version name for big releases of Java, e.g. Java2 and Java5. From a developer perspective it is generally more informative to refer to the version of the JDK>
Keyword(s):

JDK: Java Development Kit, minimal tool set for creating Java programs

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The Sun Java Development Kit (JDK) is the freely downloadable set of tools for developing and running Java programs. It contains the Java Runtime Environment (JRE), which can be downloaded separatly if all you want to do is run Java code and not create new programs.

The JDK is given a number for the release version, e.g. JDK 1.1, JDK 1.2, JDK 1.4 and JDK 1.5. Sun also gives an overall version name for big releases of Java, e.g. Java2 and Java5. From a developer perspective it is generally more informative to refer to the version of the JDK

Keyword(s):

JVM: Software required to run Java programs

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JVM or Java Virtual Machine is the software emulation of a CPU required to run a java program. The two ways to get it are to download either the Java Runtime or the Java Development Kit (JDK). The JDK contains software to develop Java programs as well as to run them, and is thus a super set of the Java Runtime.
For more information see the WikiPedia at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jvm
Keyword(s):

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