People are talking about it, it should revolutionize computer's world for next years and it's labeled like the programming language of the future, but what’s Java?

Java is an object-oriented programming language, with lexical rules like C++. Until here it’s not so extraordinary, therefore why is it so special? A main quality is that small Java programs (Applets) can be included in an HTML page (like an image) and then, loaded and executed inside the browser window. Using applets, a web page is able to actually interact with users. It’s possible, for instance, include a musical applet which draws a little playable keyboard on the screen. The same thing will be almost impossible to obtain using a CGI script. Moreover, Java applets can be executed on different kinds of computers, the only requirement is to get a Java-compatible browser.