Applets

An applet is a Java bytecode program that runs on a Web browser. Most up-to-date Web browsers include a Java interpreter. A Web page may contain an applet, which means that part of what the page displays is controlled by Java bytecodes. The computer that hosts the Web page sends Java bytecodes to a client computer (like yours) that has asked for the page. The Web browser on the client runs the Java applet using its built-in interpreter.

Applets are used for user interaction, graphics, and animation. Applets will be discussed in later chapters of these notes. For now, let us concentrate on Java programs that get input from the keyboard and write output to the command prompt window of the monitor. These are called Java application programs.