Getting Started w/ Java ?

[beefeater267]

Hi,

I'm from a Microsoft past and am looking to get started w/ Java development. Can anyone point me out in the right direction on what i need to get started?

I'm looking at:

http://java.sun.com/

and I'm not sure what the difference is between (for example): J2SE 5.0 and J2SE 1.4.2 SDK, etc.

I had brief experience w/ java in college, so, i'm guessing i need J2SE 1.4.2 SDK.

Also, I've heard of using 'Eclipse' as an IDE.

So, is this all i need to create / run Java apps on my home PC (Win XP Pro)

Thanks for the help and info.

Regards.

 

[timw]

Eclipse will probably suit your needs fine. It's free and is plenty powerful enough. One thought, though. Using an IDE to write Java will tend to cause you to take longer to really learn the syntax of Java. Having an IDE to do all the mundane tasks like providing basic class structure obviates the need to learn things like this. Some advocate using a plain text editor like wordpad to create your java files and then using, maybe Jakarta Ant to compile them. It's your choice in the end.

JS2E5.0 is merely the newest production Java platform. It provides extra functionality in the Java syntax and some additional libraries. Many people have yet to migrate to this. I still use 1.4.2 big time.

There is a lot to learn, but if you're really interested and stick at it, it all makes sense in the end, and I think it's great fun. One word of caution. Don't be tempted to start messing around with J2EE until you've got a good understanding of J2SE. We get many people in these forums who seem to want to go from a standing start straight to J2EE without passing GO. It's better to get a good all round knowledge-base learnt before you forge ahead with advanced issues, IMHO.

Good luck, post any problems you get here, and have fun.

Tim

 

[Diancecht]

Follow tim's advice, but compile your programs using the standard javac program provided with the JDK, that will give you more knowledge about what's going on.

Cheers,
Dian

 

[AntiEarnie]

I have had pretty good luck with Eclipse here. They had a nice simple tutorial on how to setup and use it so within an hour I was up and running with it (not much information overload). javac is nice but having a pretty good debugger to check varriables is a MASSIVE boon as well. Sun's IDE was a bit to massive for me to get a handle on. There are a hundread and one little settings in it that were keeping me from even doing a "hello world" app.

 

[Diancecht]

Nice to know you got it to work.

Anyway, I still encourage you to run a simple application with the Sun JDK, that will help you to understand and solve the problems you will face in the future.

Cheers,
Dian