Java

Description: Java is a cross-platform programming language used either alone or within a web browser. Its main attraction is that you write the program on your machine, compile it (into a byte code), then it is interpreted on whatever machine it is run on.
You need to download an JVM (Java Virtual Machine) from Sun's website in order to run the interpreter. Java runs natively in Windows. To write and run programs, you also need the Software Development Kit, Java 2 Platform, SE. (at the same page). The size of the j2sdk1.4.2 directory is about 80 MB, on Windows ME.
Personal note on May 11: The documentation provided by Sun gives clear instructions on how to go about writing Java programs and compiling them. However, you do need an editor outside the java directory.
For an opensource alternative to JVM, look into Kaffe, Japhar, or kissme (these are primarily aimed at Linux, but Kaffe does specifically mention a port to Cygwin and Mingw, so I assume Cygwin will compile it just fine.)
There are many libraries provided with Java - for GUI programming, network programming, etc. Java also provides automatic garbage collection, unlike C.

History: Developed by James Gosling and other engineers at Sun Microsystems, between 1991 and 1995

Applications: games, secure transaction processing, many others.

Official Homepages:

Java Home Page
Kaffe Home Page
Japhar Home Page
kissme Home Page


Newsgroups: comp.lang.java, 19 others under comp.lang.java.

Newsletters/magazines: none known

Related links:
JavaWorld
Godiva project home page - Goal Directed Java
Jint homepage - a scripting language for Java-based systems
Wikipedia page for Java