1. The Java object-oriented language

Java belongs to the family of object-oriented languages that includes Eiffel, C++, SmallTalk, Clos and a few others, including Ada, which now incorporates certain object-oriented concepts. Its syntax is close to that of C++ [6] but the analogy with C++ should not be drawn too quickly. In fact, it is much more closely related to SmallTalk [9] . Being object-oriented means that, apart from predefined basic types such as numbers or characters, everything is an object. Programs are built by assembling the software components that are objects. An object is the combination in a single entity of a data structure and the algorithms used to manipulate that data structure. This is in contrast to conventional programming, where data and processing are separated. The object...