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Getting Set Up For Java

The Java Development Kit is offered freely by Sun Microsystems on their site java.sun.com. Many flavors of the development kit are available, including:

Java SE     Standard Edition

Java EE     Enterprise Edition

Java ME     Mobile/Wireless Edition

For this tutorial, you won't need more than the standard edition, which includes the Java SE Development Kit (JDK) and the Java Runtime Environment (JRE).

The Java SE and the Java EE should contain the following:

javac.exe     to compile and create the byte code.

java.exe       to run java applications.

After you download and install the jdk, you will need to point to it by modifying the PATH environment variable. You can find the PATH variable by opening the Control Panel and double clicking on "System". Or if you use the "Category View" for the Control Panel, you will click on "Performance and Maintenance", then on "System". Then select the Advanced tab. In the Advanced dialog box, click the Environment Variables button.

In the Environment Variables dialog box, find PATH in the list of System variables. Select it. Double click on it or click the Edit button. You can then carefully edit the Variable value for PATH.

For example, if your PATH parameter is equal to the following:

%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;%SystemRoot%\System32\Wbem;C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.0\bin;C:\QuickTime\QTSystem\

Add the location of the /bin directory that contains javac.exe and java.exe.

%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;%SystemRoot%\System32\Wbem;C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.0\bin;C:\QuickTime\QTSystem\;c:\Java\jdk1.6.0_02\bin

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