lowable operations on those values, and the meanings of the operations. Built-in types are provided by the Java language. Programmers can compose new types using the <A NAME=MARKER2_17></A>class and interface mechanisms (see <A HREF="javaspec_5.html#0">"Classes" on page 11</A> and <A HREF="javaspec_6.html#0">"Interfaces" on page 23</A>).<P>
The Java language has two kinds of types: simple and composite. Simple types are those that cannot be broken down; they are atomic. The integer, floating point, boolean,