I would like start learning java.
I just installed JDK 6u24 from sun.com.
When I try to compile Helloworld it says javac is not recognized.
Can anybody please help me how to define the class path and the essentials to compile and run java programs.
The difference is that the variable you need to set is PATH, not CLASSPATH; and it needs to point to the directory containing javac.exe
(on my system this is C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_20\bin)
Eclipse is a very good IDE, but if you're just starting to learn Java, it's better to start with a simple text editing program. Learn the basics of the Java programming language first. It will be overwhelming if you are trying to learn too many things at once - how the IDE works and how Java works.
A nice and simple text editor that has color syntax highlighting for Java is Notepad++.