Wildly lost among the various SDKs, JDKs, and JREs

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David Stiller - 13 Feb 2005 03:08 GMT

I have experience with other languages and want to start with Java,
because I've heard so many good things about it.

Right out of the gates, I'm already lost.

I went to java.sun.com and was confused by my many choices. I read a
number of pages on the site, I read an FAQ list, I clicked a seemingly
endless labyrinth of hyperlinks ... I *think* what I need is merely the
J2SE, but there's also a J2SE SDK, there's JDK 5.0, and a number of JREs. I
finally downloaded JDK 5 (without NetBeans IDE) and JRE 5. I downloaded the
free JBuilder IDE and saw that it has its own JRE folder.

So now I have the following: JBuilder's JRE, which seems to be less
up-to-date than the JRE 5; the JDK folder's JRE; a JavaSoft folder with its
own JRE ... and I'm lost. Do I need anything more than the JRE folder
inside my JDK? Do I need the JDK at all, or just the J2SE SDK? If I have
JBuilder, do I need anything at all from Sun (besides the JRE included with
JBuilder)?

Thanks so much, anyone who can help me get my bearings.

David
stiller (at) quip (dot) net
"Luck is the residue of good design."

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Oscar kind - 13 Feb 2005 10:46 GMT

> I have experience with other languages and want to start with Java,
> because I've heard so many good things about it.
>
> Right out of the gates, I'm already lost.

Not to worry; this is fairly common. Unfortunately.

[...]

> So now I have the following: JBuilder's JRE, which seems to be less
> up-to-date than the JRE 5; the JDK folder's JRE; a JavaSoft folder with its
> own JRE ... and I'm lost. Do I need anything more than the JRE folder
> inside my JDK? Do I need the JDK at all, or just the J2SE SDK? If I have
> JBuilder, do I need anything at all from Sun (besides the JRE included with
> JBuilder)?

Step one is to determine the Java version you want to work with. I'd
suggest the latest. This allows you to develop for Java 1.3, 1.4 and 1.5
(choose the latter if you don't know what version to choose).

Step two is to determine what you need: JRE/JDK/SDK/... A few notes:
- JBuilder includes its own JRE, to make sure it runs correctly.
- A JRE can only execute Java programs, and is insufficient for
development (it lacks the compiler, and other things).
- For development, you need a JDK, SDK or whatever it's called. This
always includes a JRE (at least for Sun's Java downloads).
For the latest Java version, this means JDK 1.5.0_01 IIRC.

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Oscar Kind http://home.hccnet.nl/okind/
Software Developer for contact information, see website

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David Stiller - 13 Feb 2005 23:04 GMT

Ocscar,

Thanks! I uninstalled many of my unnecessary JREs and seem to be
settled in just fine. Got my Hello World working.

> Not to worry; this is fairly common. Unfortunately.

That really is unfortunate. I can imagine where many people might just
be scared off! I've added a mini "Beginner's Guide for the Java
Uninitiated" to my To Do list. Thanks again for your insight.

David
stiller (at) quip (dot) net
"Luck is the residue of good design."

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Wildly lost among the various SDKs, JDKs, and JREs

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