What to use??

[MW252]

I have the book "Sam's teach yourself Java 2 in 21 days, it was published in 1999. It tells me to go to java.sun.com and download the JDK 1.2, now my questions are.

1. Is the Java that i am learning to 'new', meaning that it will not display on the older browsers?

2. Should i download the JDK 1.2, a newer version of the JDK or the "Java 2 SDK"?

Any other advice that you can give me on learning java would be greatly accepted.


Thank you,



-Matt

 

[LeonTang]

Since you mentioned applets, I guess you would just like to create applets? If so, then it would be better to get books teaching pure applets (more examples) instead of a book on Java. You don't have to spend so much time too unless you have got the time.

You can download JDK1.1, instead of JDK1.2 and above, to create your applets as most browsers have JRE1.1 bundled together, so you won't have trouble running the applets you create.

Leon

 

[pipk]

If you want to use java 1.2, you will notice that sun have included the swing library with the package, which is basically suns (good) attempt at widening Java's appeal beyond just coding applets. You can create sophisticated GUI screen with the swing components on applications or with applets, however, most browsers do not support SWing components for applets without the HTML page first being converted via the HTML converter for the version of java you have (also available for download from sun). It takes about 2 seconds to convert a page and is not really a hassle, and it means you can use swing in your applets (basically a good way to identify a swing componenet is that it is proceeded by J, e.g. JApplet, JFrame, JPanel etc).

 

[donjon]

That would interest me as I have written Applets in Swing and had to scrap them because they wouldn't display in some browsers. What is involved in the HTML Conversion? Is it just called "HTML Converter" for a Sun download?

Thanks!
Donna

 

[wushutwist]

Here is the url for the HTML Converter:

http://java.sun.com/products/plugin/1.3/features.html

Wushutwist

 

[donjon]

Wushutwist,
Thanks alot ... I appreciate it! In fact, gonna putz around with it this afternoon!

 

[pipk]

If you have problems setting it up, let us know.

 

[MW252]

Thanks alot you guys!!!

So you think i should download JDK 1.2 or 1.2, what about the Java 2 SDK, it includes one of the JDK's and is about 3 times bigger so it must have more of something, i am learing the Java language first and then i will buy the just for applet books, but thanks for the tip.

thanks again,

-Matt