Originally posted by NDBounce:
<STRONG>I'm beginning to learn JAVA, mainly so that I can write applets in to my personal web page (nothing complex yet). But I ran in to a recent problem...I can't seem to find a Java compiler/developer kit for the Mac?
I assume there is one somewhere. If someone could point me to resources for using JAVA on the Mac I'd greatly appreciate it (I have yet to upgrade to OS X...should I? Is it included with the OS X developers tools?)
Thank you for helping a newbie.</STRONG>
Oh boy...OSX is for you....BIG TIME!!!!!
Where to start...OSX is a wonderful Java platform. It seems to have been built with Java very much in mind.
1. IMHO the best feature -- you can compile and debug your .java files really quickly from the command line (Terminal) by navigating to the directory or folder that contains your .java file and typing
javac filename.java
the commandline compiler offers succinct and accurate debugging information -- I prefer it to an IDE for simple applets.
2. if compile successfully and then create a reference to your applet in an HTML file you can then pre-test it by invoking the appletviewer tool thusly:
appletviewer filename.html
and it will load the applet in a window
2. Developer Tools rocks and includes awesome ProjectBuilder which you can use as a Java IDE. It's quite slick, but I haven't got it all figured out yet, either.
3. OSX also includes Java Web Start a small Java application catalog and runtime environment.
4. You can get a free download of Borland JBuilder 6 that works on OSX
5. MS Internet Explorer 5.1 for OSX seems to be a very good Java compliant browser.
Above all though the Terminal and it's compiler would be the main reason I'd upgrade to OSX. It's been a truly great experience for me. Also, you are going to love how your applets look in OSX.
------
I've only being learning Java for a short time -- so maybe an expert can give you better advice.
As far as other resource, well
Java How to Program 4th Edition, by Deitel and DEitel is a fabulous book.
I work in publishing and not for them, but this book is very complete, visually oriented, full of practical hands-on exercises, and examples. Well worth the 70 bucks. On the other hand I'd avoid books like Eckel'
s Thinking in Java, until you are well grounded in all the basics, as Eckel presumes a lot of knowledge of C and C++.
You will also want to visit the spiritual home of java
http://www.sun.com/java/
Kick the tutorials around become a member and explore the resources and download the documentation etc.
And Borland
http://community.borland.com/java/0,1419,3,00.html
I've also done a few hastily banged out rough pages on my website to show B&NU students what Java can look like in OSX, since 99% of them were working on PC's.
http://www.h2omen.com/experimental/java.html
Since i was really doing this all for the heck of it, i only have one applet on my site - Volumizer for determining neutral volume of a windsurfing board depending on rder weight,
http://www.h2omen.com/h2oapplets/Vol...Volumizer.html
equipment weight etc. Very simple, no error handling. I'll next try to re-create it in Javascript, as I am kinda disappointed in how few browsers are truly java-compliant out of the box.
(Pity cos Java is a great language to my mind.)
L8rrr
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