Software

You need a text editor like Brief, UltraEdit, TextPad, emacs, or BBEdit, not a word processor.

This course covers Java 2, which comes in several versions. For this course we will be focusing on Java 2 Standard Edition 1.4. Currently Sun makes a Java Development Kit (JDK) freely available for Windows, Linux, and Solaris. You can download it from http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/download.html.

Java 5 (a.k.a Java 1.5) adds templates and a little extra syntax. With one or two exceptions I'll note as we reach them (the java.io.File class and runnable JAR archives mostly) everything we'll discuss in this class is the same in Java 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, and 1.5.

Third parties have ported various versions of the JDK to various platforms including OS/2, the Mac, and Linux.

You do not need an IDE. IDEs cause far more problems than they solve. I strongly recommend you do not use one. Any problems caused by bugs in your IDE are your responsibility.

For most web browsers, the JDK will install the Java plug-in which supports the latest version of Java.

You will also need web space for some of the assignments. It is freely available to any student with a utopia account. Although you won't need it until about the fifth class, it does take some time for the bureaucracy to process the paperwork. You should begin the process of filling out the forms now.


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Copyright 1997-2006 Elliotte Rusty Harold
elharo@metalab.unc.edu
Last Modified June 3, 2005