Java^TM2 Software Development Kit

The first piece of software you have to install is a Java environment. In this tutorial, we will use Sun's Java^TM2 Software Development Kit (SDK), but you can use Java SDK provided by other manufacturer's as well.

Here are the steps to install your Java environment:

1. Go to Sun Web site on the Java^TM2 Platform, Standard Edition download page.

2. Download a SDK version 1.2 or later. As of this writing, SDK v1.4 is still not in its final version so we encourage you to use version 1.3.

   Make sure that you download the SDK and not the JRE, because the JRE is only a subset of the SDK and does not include a Java compiler.

   You may want to use an alternative Java compiler such as Jikes from IBM. It can greatly reduce compilation time during development.

3. Once you have downloaded the SDK, follow the instructions to proceed to the installation according to your platform. There is usually a link to an Installation Notes page from the download page.

To complete the setup of your SDK, you have to configure some environment variables. This procedure is detailed in the section called Setting up your Java environment in the chapter called Configuring your environment.