A robust, object-oriented, platform-independent programming language developed by Sun. Java programs run on a device-independent virtual machine, therefore there is no need to port a Java program to different platforms. The virtual machine concept also eliminates security problems because it isolates Java programs from the real machine (or the computer they are running on). Java is modeled after C++, but it does not support pointers because they are not only crash-prone and hard-to-use but also pose security problems.