Tutorials : Brush Up on Basics :

Java Basic - Getting Started

It is time to start downloading.

To start writing Java you will definitely need:

• Java Software Development Kit (SDK)
• Text Editor or IDE

The SDK is easy, you just need to download it free of charge from the Java web site http://java.sun.com/, you will find it in the Products & APIs directory, or more specifically http://java.sun.com/products/. At the moment the latest version of the SDK is 1.4 and is found directly at http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4/download.html. Remember to click on the Windows (all languages) row and the SDK column. It usually takes about 2 hours 30 minutes, so I would recommend that you download a downloader program first (because I don't know if the Internet Explorer standard downloader can handle it all). I use Download Accelerator Plus which you can get for free from http://www.speedbit.com/.

Once downloaded, install. One thing you should do once you have installed the SDK is to make sure that your computer knows where it is. By this I mean that you have to set the path of the SDK in your autoexec.bat file. So that you don't have to keep on typing the long path to the SDK in DOS (as you use the SDK through DOS, or you can use an IDE (later)). This is what you do:

1. Go to your C:\ directory.
   
   
   
   
2. Right click, and select Edit. The file will pop up in a text editor and it will look a bit like this.
   
   
   
   
3. If it hasn't already you need to type this in to the text editor and save it. Remember to change the "path of SDK" to where ever the SDK is.
   
   SET PATH C:\path of SDK\j2sdk1.4.0\bin
   
   
   
   For example if you downloaded SDK 1.2.2 and it was saved into the directory C:\Alice\Java\jdk1.2.2 then you should have this (always remember to but \bin on the end of your path).
   
   SET PATH C:\Alice\Java\jdk1.2.2\bin
   
   
4. Then you need to restart your computer and you should see in the setup screen the path being set. 

You can also do this via your control panel if you are using Windows 2000.

Now all you need is either a text editor or an IDE (Integrated Development Environment). If you can't be bothered downloading anything more you can just use Notepad. But there are several IDEs you can download. IDEs are editors specifically made for Java, so instead of having to go the long way using notepad, you can do things much easier and quicker with an IDE. There are two which are free.

1. Forte which is made by Sun Microsystems - http://www.sun.com/forte/ffj/
2. FreeJava, but their web site no longer exists You can download it here.

I recommend the FreeJava IDE as it is much quicker, is nice and compact and fairly easy to use. While Forte takes ages to load up, is big, messes up your computer with folders and files and I still haven't worked out how to use it. What ever you use, in the next stage of the tutorial I'll show you how to do things the long way using notepad and DOS.

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