My subject says it all. I downloaded J2SE from the sun website (40 frickin'' megs!), but I can''t figure out how to even begin using it. Wassup with that? I also downloaded the documentation, but my unzipper won''t unzip it for some reason.

quote:Original post by capn_midnight

but I can''t figure out how to even begin using it. Wassup with that?

If you can ask this, then you are really newbie. Start by reading a book on Java. It will tell you all you need to know.

And BTW. If Forte is too slow for you I think you should go for Borland JBuilder instead. The standard edition is free also.

Jacob Marner

quote:Original post by felonius

Original post by capn_midnight

but I can''t figure out how to even begin using it. Wassup with that?

If you can ask this, then you are really newbie. Start by reading a book on Java. It will tell you all you need to know.

And BTW. If Forte is too slow for you I think you should go for Borland JBuilder instead. The standard edition is free also.

Jacob Marner


I didn''t mean I hade now clue how to code java. I have lots of experience with java-script and C/C++ (mostly C), and I can easily find plenty of resources on Java itself, so that isn''t a problem. What I meant was, I know that supposedly you can compile using just the J2SE, but I didn''t have a clue how one would do that. Is it a command prompt thing, or do you drag and drop into the executable?
About the zip file not extracting, I think it''s because I''m using an old version of PKUnzip, I found it on one of the disks that came with my C compiler (borland C++ 4.52).
Dude, Borland JBuilder? Is it similar to Borland C++ (in interface, I mean). If it is, then that would be cool, because I love the Borland IDE (of course, I''ve never used anything else, so how would I know if I preffered it over something else).
If I get JBuilder, can I get just the IDE, or will I have to download the SDK along with it? Because that would be a total pain to have to download the SDK again along with something else.

Bowowow yipeeyo yipeeyay

I don''t know how much command line experience you have, but make sure the PATH variable in your autoexec.bat file contains the path to the jdk1.#/bin directory. Then, from the command line, you would compile a file called Hello.java like this:

javac Hello.java

The to run:

java Hello

There are several commandline parameters you can use for optimization, warnings, etc... If you can''t get the docs unzipped then either download WinZip or check out the online version at the Java homepage.

quote: Original post by capn_midnight

Is it a command prompt thing, or do you drag and drop into the executable?

I don''t mind newbies anonymous, we all were newbies some time.

But this thing about using Java, it is pretty basic and I don''t know what book anonymous have read. If you download the Java tutorial (or read it online) from java.sun.com then this is one of the first things that i explains - how to use the tools. Read that tutorial and you will get all the info you need. Come back afterwards.

And one more thing there are billions of Java books out there and almost all if them is a piece of s**t.

Here is tip when buying computer books. Look at the publisher. Find the publisher in the list below and if it is listed under good buy it, otherwise not.

Good publishers:
---------------------
IEEE
ACM
Springer-Verlag
Addison-Wesley
Prentice Hall
Morgan Kaufmann
MIT Press
Academic Press

Medium publishers:
---------------------
Microsoft Press (profesional series)
O''Reilly

Bad publishers (never buy these):
-----------------------------------
SAMS
M&T
Sybex
AP Professional
IDG

And of course, there are exceptions but go by this list as a rule of the thumb and you will be pretty sure to get serious book without a lot of nonsence.

If any of you have more publisher I can add to
my list please let me know.

Jacob Marner

yeah, I know, I saw all the banners for the IDE''s, but it mentioned paying and I don''t have a lot of money to spend on stuff (I just made a major transaction the other day, $7.50 for some CD''s).
Okay, I guess I could try the sun tutorial again. last time I tried to read it, it was like 5 pages straight trying to explain the concept of classes and how it applies to java and how wonderful java is and so on and so on...

Go get Thinking in Java. You should read it thoroughly. It will get you up to speed in no time.