What is the difference between Spring and Spring Boot?

Spring is a powerful and flexible framework for developing applications in Java, providing infrastructure for inversion of control (IoC), aspect-oriented programming (AOP), data access, transactions, and much more. It requires significant setup and configuration, often using XML or Java configurations.

Spring Boot is a layer on top of Spring that simplifies application creation by providing auto-configuration, an embedded application server (such as Tomcat), and ready-to-use starter dependencies. This allows for quick project startup with minimal configuration.

Key differences:

• Configuration: Spring requires manual setup, Spring Boot offers auto-configuration.
• Launch: Spring Boot applications are launched as standalone jars with an embedded server.
• Development speed: Spring Boot accelerates development with ready-made templates and starter packages.

Example:

@SpringBootApplication
public class Application {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SpringApplication.run(Application.class, args);
    }
}

This class launches a Spring Boot application with minimal effort.