What is Tomcat?

Apache Tomcat (formerly under the Apache Jakarta Project; Tomcat is now a top level project) is a web container developed at the Apache Software Foundation. Tomcat implements the servlet and the JavaServer Pages (JSP) specifications from Sun Microsystems, providing an environment for Java code to run in cooperation with a web server. It adds tools for configuration and management but can also be configured by editing configuration files that are normally XML-formatted. Because Tomcat includes its own HTTP server internally, it is also considered a standalone web server.

Environment
Tomcat is a web server that supports servlets and JSPs. Tomcat comes with the Jasper compiler that compiles JSPs into servlets.

The Tomcat servlet engine is often used in combination with an Apache webserver or other web servers. Tomcat can also function as an independent web server. Earlier in its development, the perception existed that standalone Tomcat was only suitable for development environments and other environments with minimal requirements for speed and transaction handling. However, that perception no longer exists; Tomcat is increasingly used as a standalone web server in high-traffic, high-availability environments.

Since its developers wrote Tomcat in Java, it runs on any operating system that has a JVM.

Product features

Tomcat 3.x (initial release)

• implements the Servlet 2.2 and JSP 1.1 specifications
• servlet reloading
• basic HTTP functionality

Tomcat 4.x

• implements the Servlet 2.3 and JSP 1.2 specifications
• servlet container redesigned as Catalina
• JSP engine redesigned as Jasper
• Coyote connector
• Java Management Extensions (JMX), JSP and Struts-based administration

Tomcat 5.x

• implements the Servlet 2.4 and JSP 2.0 specifications
• reduced garbage collection, improved performance and scalability
• native Windows and Unix wrappers for platform integration
• faster JSP parsing

History
Tomcat started off as a servlet specification implementation by James Duncan Davidson, a software architect at Sun. He later helped make the project open source and played a key role in its donation by Sun to the Apache Software Foundation.

Davidson had initially hoped that the project would become open-sourced and, since most open-source projects had O'Reilly books associated with them featuring an animal on the cover, he wanted to name the project after an animal. He came up with Tomcat since he reasoned the animal represented something that could take care of and fend for itself. His wish to see an animal cover eventually came true when O'Reilly published their Tomcat book with a tomcat on the cover.

About this Terminology
This tutorial is from The Wikipedia which is published under the GNU Free Documentation License.