CS 55   Java Programming

Software Development Kit

Java(TM) Technology Products & APIs - You can download the latest version of the Java 2 Software Development Kit (SDK) from Sun for free from this site and install it on your PC.  For Fall 2004 semester, the latest version is/was Java 2 Platform Standard Edition (J2SE) v1.4.2.

Installation Notes

Java will look for an environment variable called classpath. It is best if you do not have one. One may exist on your system if you have installed Oracle, QuickTime, or some other program that creates one.

• You can see if the classpath variable exists by entering the following at the Command Prompt: set classpath
• You can clear the classpath variable by entering the following at the Command Prompt: set classpath=

For Mac users, go to Your First Cup of Java (for Mac OS)

Eclipse Integrated Development Environment (IDE)

Eclipse is a kind of universal tool platform - an open extensible IDE for anything and nothing in particular. Professor Stahl recommends this IDE for use with Java. He uses it in his courses such as Data Structure with Java (CS 20B) and Server-Side Java Web Programming (CS 83). There is overwhelming interest and wide industry support. It has plug-ins for many languages and technologies. It is similar to Microsoft Visual Studio .NET. It has been installed in our Programming Lab (B231). Hence, it would be very good to familiarize yourself with this product. BTW, most of the Eclipse SDK is "pure" Java code. Oh yes, and it is free.

Here are a couple of links you may find helpful:

http://www.howardstahl.com/eclipse/InstallingEclipse.htm
http://www.howardstahl.com/eclipse/UsingEclipse.htm

Text Editors

You can download mpEDIT, a free, open-source text editor written in Java, from the following site:  mpEDIT. However, it is a little tricky to install and is a little buggy.

You can use Windows Notepad. Caution: If there is no application associated with the file extension you specify (i.e., .java), Notepad may add a .txt extension to your filename. To prevent this do one of the following:

• In Windows Explorer, associate an application, e.g. Notepad, with the .java extension.
• When saving your file in Notepad, set  Save as type: to All Files (*.*).
• When saving your file in Notepad, enclose the filename in double quotes.

Reference