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[Sensei]

I've been learning java in school, and thought I might take a shot making some simple games in java- if nothing else, because I really need to practice UI and Listeners. Do you guys know any good free java compilers?

Also, (tangentially) for making games, what do you guys think of XNA?

[Nadaka]

Yes I do know of a free java compiler. It is called java.

You can download the java developers kit directly from oracle and compile on the command line. You can download the Netbeans or eclipse IDE to write java in a nice IDE.

[Max White]

Java is just... free. That's all there is to it!
As for a good IDE, may I suggest bluejay? This thing is both awesome and free.


Although I use SciTE, but only because it's so clean and cut down.

[Sensei]

Huh, didn't know Eclipse was free- that's what I use at school, so of course that's a first choice for me. Well, I guess I'm off to download my runtime environment and IDE!

[Sensei]

So, I installed Eclispse and JRE5, but apparently I'm missing some import classes, such as Array Lists. Any idea where I'm supposed to get those/how I screwed up my installation?

[Max White]

Where did you download Java?
Did you remeber to import them in the head of the document?

[Nadaka]

So, I installed Eclispse and JRE5, but apparently I'm missing some import classes, such as Array Lists. Any idea where I'm supposed to get those/how I screwed up my installation?

You may have just mis-configured things. Missing a basic class like that most likely means that you need to add something to your class path.

Depending on the version of eclipse you get, it should come with enough of the framework to do most things, you won't need a seperate jre. However you may want to get the JDK for java as it contains a few extra features that you may eventually want to take advantage of.
You should get java strait from the source http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html, java 1.6 is the latest version, but 1.5 is fine for most anything though.

Do you know how to set environment variables? JAVA_HOME should be set to your java directory, the bin directory for java should be in your PATH variable and you may need to set a CLASS_PATH, but eclipse should be able to do that for any projects it runs. In eclipse right click on the project, go to properties and select "java build path" make sure that you have your jre/jdk listed under the libraries tab.

[ILikePie]

So, I installed Eclispse and JRE5, but apparently I'm missing some import classes, such as Array Lists. Any idea where I'm supposed to get those/how I screwed up my installation?

You need the JDK.

[Sensei]

I'm pretty sure the JDK installed with the JRE...

And, how DO I set environment variables?

[ILikePie]

On XP you can set them by right clicking My Computer, hit Properties, choose the Advanced tab, and click Environment Variables. It's pretty much the same on 7, you just have to click Advanced System Settings button after hitting Properties.

[Normandy]

So, I installed Eclispse and JRE5, but apparently I'm missing some import classes, such as Array Lists. Any idea where I'm supposed to get those/how I screwed up my installation?

You need the JDK.

You need the JRE6 and the JDK

[Eagleon]

JDK is separate from JRE (Java Runtime Environment). JRE is pretty much what you need to run compiled java for your particular environment. JDK contains the compiler, though it might also contain a version of the JRE for convenience.

[ILikePie]

I'm pretty sure it does, I mean, what good is a compiler if you can't run the programs it compiles?

[Eagleon]

Well just about everyone and their mother has a JRE already installed, most likely auto-updating, so to me it's just extra padding on the download, but eh.

[ILikePie]

You may be right, I installed my JDK through my package manager, which probably just pulls in the JRE, etc. as dependencies.