JAVA TOOLS AND ENVIRONMENT

Although it’s possible to write, compile, and run Java applications with nothing more than Oracle’s "Java Development Kit (JDK)" and a simple text editor (e.g., vi, Notepad, etc.), today the vast majority of Java code is written with the benefit of an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) The benefits of using an IDE include an all-in-one view of Java source code with syntax highlighting, navigation help, source control, integrated documentation, building, refactoring, and deployment all at your fingertips. Every IDE requires a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) to be installed. We are going to cover Java 7 language features, so although our examples will work with older versions, it’s best to have JDK 7 installed to ensure that all examples compile. The JDK includes the JRE as well as developer tools. You can check to see which version, if any, you have installed by typing java -version at the command line. If Java isn’t present, or if it’s a version older than JDK 7 (confusingly also referred to as JDK 1.7), you will want to download the latest version from Oracle’s download page. All that is required for the examples in this book is the basic JDK, which is the first option in the upper-left corner of the download page.