Java Programming Environment


You have several choices:

  1.  The JBuilder IDE.  You can download JBuilder and the JBuilder documentation (which includes full Java documentation) directly from the manufacturer.  Each download is about 30M, so you'll want a high-speed connection.
  2. JPad.  Like JBuilder, you can download a version of this IDE directly from the manufacturer.  JPad serves as a nice-looking interface to the JDK compiler and debugger, so you'll have to download the JDK directly from Sun.  The JPad download is about 3.5M.  The JDK download, however, is 35M.   You can probably locate a CD somewhere that has a version of the JDK, however.
  3. Forte.  This is Sun's free Java IDE.  It is very powerful, but has a bit of a learning curve.
  4. Use a simple text editor for developing text.  Use the command line with javac to compile your files, and with jdb to debug your programs.   (To use jdb, you must compile your java files with the -g option.)