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 What are the Facts
Lets get down to facts. Java is a cross-platform programming language, and it is no easier, and no more difficult, than C++ on which it is based. Authors of computer application programs will choose to implement them in Java, because it will not need to be rewritten for the many different computers on the market.
Java in the House?
Manufacturers of household (and industrial) devices may choose to implement it on things like telephones, burglar alarms, lights, central heating, washing machines, video recorders, home computers, to control those devices, and also provide added facilities to confuse the house-person. If this is done, then your home computer or perhaps your portable telephone, can perhaps be set up to control those household devices remotely. Perhaps this controller could be a pocket sized computer like Psion. Or a designer-created handheld magic box. As an example, the convenience of having a way to update your telephone numbers on your domestic phones, your poser phone and your PC address book.
Java in CGI
Java can run on your Internet Server CGI area to do clever things. Just like Perl, C+, and the several other programming languages, which are, nevertheless, likely to continue to be popular.
Java Applets
Java Applets can be written to be downloaded onto the surfer's computer and run with the surfer's browser. Applets could be useful for large applications which can be segmented and downloaded piece by piece as they are needed to be used. They can also be used for small neat things, for an example check the Idiot Applet.
Applets are the philosphy of the NC (Network Computer). But the NC is not a domestic device at the moment, they are as expensive as a PC, and they requires a considerable bandwidth to download all the material. This wide bandwidth is what Intranets and Local Area Networks are all about. There could soon be a premium price Internet service which also provides such bandwidth. And no doubt with volume sales the price of the boxes will fall.
Any applet distributed in this way will be poached, and programs are freely available to reverse-engineer Java and Javascript applets. Java on the host server should be pretty safe when protected by a standard firewall.
To write Java you need a Java Development Kit and there are several of these available.
What is JavaScript then?
Javascript looks superficially like Java but is not the same. You download Javascript embedded in a web page and have it do clever things working with your own browser.
Will it always work?
At least 10% of surfers who visit your site will not have a Java facilty, and a sizeable proportion of those that have it, will decide to surf with the Java scripts turned off. And some browsers interpret Java and JavaScript in different ways.
So you should not design pages which depend solely on Java for their satisfactory operation.
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