A few starting out questions...

I've just downloaded the JDE (something about netbeans too...) and going through a simple tutorial it talks alot about going into MS-DOS. Is this normal? I'm supposed to open up the MS-DOS prompt in order to be able to compile a Java Application? Also, what's the difference between an SDK and a JDE, and why do so many people prefer Eclipse over Netbeans? Thanks, sorry if I sound really new.

Did you really mean JDE? Or did you mean JDK or JDEE? As far as I know, JDE is a Emacs IDE version for Java.





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Well, starting out you SHOULD use the command line to compile and run programs. After you learn how to fully set up environment variables, and use the command line, then you could move to an IDE.