I am New to JAVA --- Have a Quick Question

[fundean]

Please tell me the "program" I need in order to write, debug, and compile JAVA programs; I heard that there are "free" ones out there. Can someone please tell me what I need in order to have a setup for JAVA just like MS Visual Studio has for C++ and Visual Basic? I am running Windows 98 with a PIII 850 Mhz and 128 Mb RAM.


Thanks !

[Dillinger4]

No IDE is required you can just ues notepad but as for free IDE's you can get FORTE from Sun's site. JCreator is good. Borlands JBuilder is another good one. I use JCreator which i had to pay for but there is also a free version you can get you paws on too.

[crptcblade]

you can use Forte for Java. It's a free download from Sun. That would be mostly for GUI apps, I think. You can also use Notepad if you want. The source code is just plain text, like any other language. Then, you compile it into executable class files. There is a thread a few down on this page with links to different compilers.

[Ramandeep]

I started out on notepad when I first started learning Java, but as you start to get more experienced you will want a IDE application as it can help navigate to parts of your code much easier and quicker.

I got JBuilder 3 University edition with my Java Book that I bought. I'm sure you must be able to also download a university edition of JBuilder from Borland’s web site.

If your going to use Notepad initially you will need to download JDK from Sun's website, this contains the Java compiler etc

[Cudabean]

Here's how to get startled in Java--a checklist:

go to http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.3/ and download jdk1.3 (they call it java 2 sdk 1.3 standard edition)
If you are using Windows, locate and download edit plus. ( http://www.editplus.com/ ) Why? Because it's a versatile editor and it color highlights java, javascript, perl and a whole slew of others.
If you need an IDE, go to this article http://slashdot.org/developers/01/11/08/0036217.shtml this is a recent posting where people discussed the relative merits of Java IDEs. It's basically a big rambling review.

IDE or not? Whether to use an IDE is up to you. Some would argue that a color highlighting editor is best because you learn the syntax more thoroughly. I've found that an IDE prolongs the learning process because it pumps out a lot of Java syntax that I don't understand. On the other hand, some of the java IDEs offer intellisense-like features that help you discover the object hierarchy simply by bumbling around with the keyboard like in VB.

Marlin