Alec/Almighty Jeef:
You've come to the right place to learn Java, make no bones about that! We do have one rule here at JavaRanch (well, two): "Be Nice" and out
Naming Policy Please make sure that your
display name conforms to this policy. (Obviously fictitious names such as "Almighty Jeef" are not permitted; we do prefer that you use your real name, which may or may not be "Alec Ignatious", but can't enforce
that).
First of all, I would suggest not using NetBeans to start with. The best way to start with Java is to start with Command-line compiling. That way, you learn what is going on behind the scenes of the
IDE. (This is good advice for any language, not just Java).
To start, download the JDK from sun and learn how to set up the environment for compiling Java (particularly the classpath). Then understand how java works -- the javac compiler, the java virtual machine, etc.
"Hello, World" is always the best first thing to try in any language. So here is one for Java:
This should go in a file called "HelloWorld.java" (Yes, capitalization does matter), and you would compile the class by issuing the following command:
Note that that produced a file called "HelloWorld.class"
Run that with the command
NOTE: Do not append the ".class"; that will not work.
The command prompt will do quite well for learning Java; as I say, you will get a better underatanding for the language than if an IDE hides some things from you.
[ November 20, 2003: Message edited by: Joel McNary ]