- Choosing a Language
- Telling the Computer What to Do
- How Programs Work
- How Programs Don't Work
- Next Stop: Java
- Workshop: Installing a Java Development Tool
- Summary
- Q&A
- Quiz
- Activities
Workshop: Installing a Java Development Tool
Every hour of this book ends with a workshop, a Java programming project you can undertake to enhance your knowledge of the subject matter while it is percolating in your brain.
However, you won't be doing any Java programming at all until you install a Java development tool on your computer.
If you have a program such as Borland JBuilder, IntelliJ IDEA, Sun ONE Studio, or MetroWerks CodeWarrior, you can use that to develop the tutorial programs in the next 23 hours. However, you should already have some familiarity with how to use the programlearning to use Java and a complex development tool at the same time can be daunting.
If you don't have a Java development tool, or the last paragraph scared you away from using one that you own, you can use the Java 2 Software Development Kit, which is available for free from Sun's Java Web site at http://java.sun.com.
Though the process is relatively straightforward, there are some configuration issues that cause problems for many people trying to get started with the kit, especially on a Windows system. To find out how to download and install the kit and fix any configuration problems that arise, read Appendix B, "Using the Java 2 Software Development Kit."