Sams Teach Yourself Java 2 in 24 Hours

By Rogers Cadenhead

• Table of Contents
  • Copyright
  • About the Author
  • About the Technical Editor
  • Acknowledgments
  • We Want to Hear from You!
  • Reader Services
  • Introduction
  • Hour 1. Becoming a Programmer
  • Hour 2. Writing Your First Program
    • What You Need to Write Programs
    • Creating the Saluton Program
    • Beginning the Program
    • Storing Information in a Variable
    • Saving the Finished Product
    • Compiling the Program into a Class File
    • Fixing Errors
    • Workshop: Running a Java Program
    • Summary
    • Q&A
    • Quiz
    • Activities
  • Hour 3. Vacationing in Java
  • Hour 4. Understanding How Java Programs Work
  • Part II: Learning the Basics of Programming
  • Hour 5. Storing and Changing Information in a Program
  • Hour 6. Using Strings to Communicate
  • Hour 7. Using Conditional Tests to Make Decisions
  • Hour 8. Repeating an Action with Loops
  • Part III: Working with Information in New Ways
  • Hour 9. Storing Information with Arrays
  • Hour 10. Creating Your First Object
  • Hour 11. Describing What Your Object Is Like
  • Hour 12. Making the Most of Existing Objects
  • Part IV: Programming a Graphical User Interface
  • Hour 13. Building a Simple User Interface
  • Hour 14. Laying Out a User Interface
  • Hour 15. Responding to User Input
  • Hour 16. Building a Complex User Interface
  • Part V: Creating Multimedia Programs
  • Hour 17. Creating Interactive Web Programs
  • Hour 18. Handling Errors in a Program
  • Hour 19. Creating a Threaded Program
  • Hour 20. Reading and Writing Files
  • Part VI: Creating Multimedia Programs
  • Hour 21. Using Fonts and Color
  • Hour 22. Playing Sound Files
  • Hour 23. Working with Graphics
  • Hour 24. Creating Animation
  • Part VII: Appendixes
  • Appendix A. Tackling New Features of Java 2 Version 1.4
  • Appendix B. Using the Java 2 Software Development Kit
  • Appendix C. Programming with the Java 2 Software Development Kit
  • Appendix D. Using Sun ONE Studio
  • Appendix E. Where to Go from Here: Java Resources
  • Appendix F. This Book's Web Site

What You Need to Write Programs

As explained in Hour 1, to create Java programs, you must have the current version of the Software Development Kit, or another development tool that supports Java 2 version 1.4. You need something that can be used to compile and test Java programs. You also might need a word processor to write programs.

With most programming languages, computer programs are written by entering text into a word processor (also called a text editor). Some programming languages, such as Visual C++ from Microsoft, come with their own word processor. Several advanced tools that you could use as an alternative to the Software Development Kit, such as Borland JBuilder and Sun ONE Studio, also come with their own editors.

Java programs are simple text files without any special features, such as centered text, boldface text, or other enhancements. They can be written with any word processing program that can create text files. Microsoft Windows systems have several word processors you can use, including Notepad, WordPad, and the DOS program Edit. Apple Macintosh users can create programs with Simple Text, or other editors such as BBEdit Lite. Linux and Unix users can use vi, emacs, and others. Any of these will work fine.

You can also use more sophisticated word processors such as Microsoft Word if you remember to save the programs as text. This option has different names depending on the program you are using. In Word, the file should be saved as a file of type Text Only. Other programs call these files DOS text, ASCII text, or something similar. You'll probably have a better experience creating the programs in this book if you choose a simple word processor to work on source code rather than a sophisticated editing tool such as Word.

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