Having trouble setting up Java JDK

[Sophi Rose]

I recently got my book Head First Java, which tells me I need to set up JDK in order to do code at the command line. But the book doesn't go about how to do that in well enough detail. I found the set up guide here Guidebut I am still having trouble. I feel like I set everything up correctly but there is still something off. I set the path as it described and I tried to do a version test to see if it was set up correctly, but it just says "javac is not recognized...." I don't know if I am trying to check the version in the wrong place, or if I am using cmd wrong (I never did programs in cmd I always used BlueJ in class). I attached pictures to show what I've been trying to do. If you have any suggestions / help I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you.

[Carey Brown]

Did you install the JDK or the JRE? For the "javac.exe" file, it has to be the JDK.

This should be available in a directory like (current version of Java)
C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_92\bin

If you already had a command line window open before you changed JAVA_HOME and PATH then you'll need to close the window and open a new one.

[Liutauras Vilda]

A warm welcome to the Ranch

1. Please close commander and open it again
2. Type echo %PATH%
3. Post here what you got as an output

[Ron McLeod]

Sophi Rose wrote:

Does your platform really have JDK version 1.5 installed or is that from an example in an old book/webpage?  That version came-out 10+ years ago.

[Ron McLeod]

Ignore my question - it looks like it really is version 1.5

[Sophi Rose]

@Liutauras Vilda This is the output for the echo.

@Ron McLeod It says it's version 5 (for some reason it reads it at 1.5). Should I not worry about what the book says and just get latest?

[Sophi Rose]

I got it to work by doing some extra digging. First I updated to the latest version, then I changed the %JAVA_HOME%\bin to the direct path C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_91\bin. I ran the javac -version at command and it returned fine.

[Jesper de Jong]

Java is backward compatible, so even if you use the latest version (Java 8) then everything in the book will still work if it's using Java 5.

A book about Java 5 is still OK if you want to learn the basics, but a lot of new stuff has been added to Java 6, 7 and 8 so at some point you'll want to learn the new stuff, which will not be in your book about Java 5.

And welcome to the Ranch and have fun learning Java!  

[Liutauras Vilda]

Sophi Rose wrote:I got it to work by doing some extra digging. First I updated to the latest version, then I changed the %JAVA_HOME%\bin to the direct path C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_91\bin. I ran the javac -version at command and it returned fine.

And you just got your first cow for a greatly presented question from the beginning and for finding the solution on your own  

[Campbell Ritchie]

Welcome to the Ranch again.

I think there is nothing wrong with using HFJ as long as you remember there have been major upgrades since then. The worst thing you can do wrong with HFJ is to buy a brand‑new copy and pay full price

Beware of the Party application in the early chapters. That is incomplete and will not execute.

[Sophi Rose]

@Campbell Ritchie Thank you for the heads up!

Also, thank you everyone for your help. Time to start learning!

[Campbell Ritchie]

That's a pleasure

Please always copy'n'paste text from the command line because screenshots can be difficult to read.