Louis StDubois

First, I want to thank all for their patience. I'm not really retardedstupid, just very very green. Second, is their an easy way to test whether I have my path variable right? I think I may have mistakenly set it in both the system and the user section. Third, about the classpath variable:

The Java2 for Dummies says this: "Okay, you've set your PATH variable. Now what? The next thing you do is to tell your system wherre you plan to put your Java programs. To do this, you set something called a CLASSPATH variable."

"The good news is, after you've followed the instructions to set the PATH variable (earlier in this section), then setting the CLASSPATH is the same story all over again. In fact, it's even easier, because you don't have to know the name of any directories. Just follow the steps described above for setting a variable on your particular operating system. When you get to the point where you're actually filling in a value for the CLASSPATH, make sure the value contains a single dot (that's right, a period). C:\jdk\classes;."

Is that really all there is to it?

For those of you who think me too lazy to use the FAQ. I've spent countless hours wandering around in there and often times come out of it even more confused and disillusioned.

Thanks to all for their help and more importantly their patience.

Edited to highlight poor choice of words.

Setting the path variable in any DOS core version of Windows is a breeze. Not so in xp home. Would someone take the time to walk me through that so that I can learn java from the command line? The book I'm using is the Java 2 for Dummies and their instructions are just sketchy enough to leave me high and dry. Thanks for any help.

Louis

Hi folks.

I have three books on Java for beginners. I won't bother naming them all, but of the three, only one tells how to install and use an ide. What can one learn from the tedium of trying to use the command line to run Java? The ide I'm trying to learn on is JCreator. I tried to use Eclipse, but can't seem to (forget what that step is called) "educate" it as to where the Java files are located. I know that that's pretty elemental stuff, but I think that time spent on an ide is more pertinent since I doubt that many folks actually work from the command line anymore.

Louis

Hello;

I don't know if the stars are conspiring against me or what, but I've had no success finding and downloading those elusive Java Docs. Needless to say I'm completely new to Java and was informed that in order even to begin I would have to find the zip file that contains the API and download that. As yet, I haven't been able to do that after wandering around Sun's website. I found the list of the API, but no zip file of the complete Docs. Can anyone provide me with a link so that I might be able to do that? Thank you for any help.

Louis