Java IDE's for n00b

[Paul Stovell]

Howdy,
I have been a C++ programmer for the past 4 years, and I'm just about to start my final year of high school (in Australia). The university course I plan to take is Bachelor of Information Technology (Software Engineering).
Unfortunately for me, the course seems to use a lot of Java, in fact its the very first subject. So I said to myself "maybe I should get a headstart and learn Java over my holidays".
So I came to one of the articles on this site which directed me to Suns page for the J2SE SDK. I go to download, only to find out its 116mb! And its not even an IDE I'm on dialup, and would rather get something else if I can.
I don't care too much about learning how to compile Java apps and all that crap, I just want to get a decent enough understanding of the language ready for Uni in a years time, so an IDE would be very useful.
Does anyone know of any good IDE's where I can just chuck in my code, and press "Run" or "Interpret" or something so I know my code works?
Also, is there any help files or anything out there that will help me with the differences between C++ and Java? I have a strong understanding of most programming concepts, including OOP, so all I really need is something to show me the differences in syntax and anything else like that.
I wish there was a Visual C++ for Java (and I only have VS 6.0, so I don't have J# )
Thanks for any help or pointers

[Marilyn de Queiroz]

I'm not sure what you were looking at. I see:
"Windows Offline Installation, Multi-language (j2sdk-1_4_2_03-windows-i586-p.exe, 48.30 MB)"

Even with the NetBeans IDE the size is only "Download j2sdk-1_4_2-nb-3_5_1-bin-windows.exe"
"Filesize = 92,575,712 bytes."

There's not much to learn about compiling Java. The hardest part is setting the classpath correctly. The main Cattle Drive page can help step you through that part.

But you're not going to get anywhere without the jdk.

Another option you might research, some textbooks have CD's of older versions of the jdk/sdk included in the book. Loading from a CD would certainly be faster, but be careful about how old the jdk is. You certainly wouldn't want to get anything below version 1.2 and the closer you can get to 1.4 the better off you'll be.

[Marilyn de Queiroz]

By the way, Paul, welcome to JavaRanch. Have you seen the Bunkhouse? Many, many books have been written to help C++ programmers make the "leap" to Java. In fact, that's why the syntax of Java is so close to that of C++, because they were trying to convert C++ programmers and show them how easy it was to learn Java.

[Paul Stovell]

Oh silly me, I was looking at
Java(TM) 2 SDK, Standard Edition 1.4.2_02, because I thought
Java(TM) 2 SDK, Standard Edition 1.4.2_03 would be an experimental version.
I see now its only 48mb... I'll start downloading it tonight when I go out to get drunk.
I downloaded JCreator LE, which seems to be just what I was looking for in an IDE, and once I have the SDK I'll get the documentation, read a few tutorials from here and hopefully use Java in a project or two
Thankyou very much

[Brian Pipa]

>JCreator LE
I would highly recommend Gel as an IDE:
http://www.gexperts.com
I just switched from JCreator to it and I'm VERY happy with it.
I have also heard that BlueJ http://www.bluej.org is a great little IDE for beginners learning Java though I haven't tried it myself.
Here is a little Java IDE chart I compiled that compares a few IDEs:
http://filenabber.com/java/ides/
Brian