Hi fellow Java students!

Over Autumn half-term I wanted to develop java stuff on my own computer. On this page are the links to what I found I needed. They're pretty big downloads, so they're only really viable if you have broadband. (If you don't, I'll bring a CD with everything on that can be passed round class in turn. Or I could post you your personal CD copy if you just cover expense).

To develop java stuff on your own computer it seems you need to have the J2SE SDK installed, which establishes a local source for all possible classes you may want to import in whatever you write (you know - all that "import java.awt.* " stuff at the start). First of all, I downloaded the latest 1.4.1 version but found that this was beyond the default comprehension of most browsers. Version 1.3.1 seems to be the safest bet. You can download this from here (33MB).

As I remember, installing this will also add the 1.3.1 JVM to chosen browsers at install time. But this will already give you something beyond the default browser configuration, so I got familiar with how to disable it for testing (in IE it's Tools > Internet Options > Advanced, and scroll down to the Sun Java / Microsoft JVM sections - the basic config seems to be Microsoft JIT only.) Don't know about other browsers.

The java docs that go with this can be downloaded from lower down the same download page as above. As a zipped download, they're 22 MB, but seem to unpack to an immense 108MB!! So check your free HD space first. But as Colin suggests, they seem to be indispensible.

Finally, I needed a programming tool that would take away the drudgery. Naturally, I investigated the free packages first. I quickly rejected the free JBuilder download (massive and powerful) as several steps too far. And others too. Eventually, JCreator seemed to be about right for me.

I tried the free version, but it didn't really give me the level of help I needed. So I downloaded the Pro version, with its 30-day free trial. This suited me perfectly. My 30-day trial isn't up yet but I decided within a few hours that for me it would be worth the single-user student fee of $35. It's a modest shareware download (just a few MB), but I'll include it on the CD anyway. Visit www.jcreator.com to get it for yourself.

Personal opinion: Jcreator was the smallest download by far compared to others above, so it seemed in principle to be a rip-off. In practice, I think it's well worth the cost with all sorts of tools and popups that encourage you to go beyond what you feel you already know. Popup code completion guidance, brilliant integration with java docs possible (copy word to clipboard and relevant documentation is automatically searched and displayed on demand), testing in various browsers can be one click away on the toolbar. Configurable shortcut keys for most operations. Bookmarks really useful for wizzing to and fro, etc, etc.

Anybody want to comment / offer links to their own sites? Click here.