Java is a language for writing web pages; it's like HTML and VRML

Java isn't a page description language like HTML. It's a programming language. Description languages specify content and placement; programming languages describe a process for generating a result. Where there is generally a direct mapping between an HTML description of a document and the result, the relationship between a Java program
and its result is likely to be more complex. It's a little like the difference between a list of square roots of numbers from zero to 10 and a program to calculate the list.

Here's an HTML table of square roots:

sqrt(1) = 1

sqrt(2) = 1.41421

sqrt(3) = 1.73205

sqrt(4) = 2

sqrt(5) = 2.23607

sqrt(6) = 2.44949

sqrt(7) = 2.64575

sqrt(8) = 2.82843

sqrt(9) = 3

sqrt(10) = 3.16228

And here's the result of a Java applet:

import java.awt.*;

public class SqrtList extends java.applet.Applet {
public void paint(Graphics g) {
g.setFont(new Font("TimesRoman", Font.PLAIN, 12));
for (float i = 1; i <= 10; i++) g.drawString("sqrt(" + i + ") = " + Math.sqrt(i), 0, (int)i * 16 - 3); } }



<br /> <br />This is the code that specifies the Java code to run: <br /> <br /><applet codebase="java" code="SqrtList" width="160" height="162"> <br /> <br />You need a Java-aware browser <br /> <br /></applet> <br /> <br />The <applet> tag specifies the class to load (the CODE= field), URL information (the CODEBASE= field) and the size of the region the applet will own. Notice that Java doesn't exactly integrate with the rest of the page. Within that region of the page Java is king: it decides background color and fonts and does all the mouse and keyboard handling. Contrast this behavior with the JavaScript example later in this document. <br /> <br />Parameters to the applet are placed in <param> tags between the <applet> and </applet> tags. Anything else between these tags is ignored. It's common to include some information here for display by browsers that don't know about Java, since they'll ignore the <applet> and <param> tags and display whatever else they find there. <br /> <br />