This is more of a question on programming concept than anything.
After 7 or 8 months of experience in
Java, I'm still quite comfortable using the console window for IO for my program (although I'm not using commandline). I just recently saw a fellow student create a manifest file with an
applet that allowed the .jar file to be clicked on to run the program. This I found rather useful because it allows portability without having to always launch from the
IDE I'm using (CodeWarrior). I noticed that there is no console window when using the manifest file (programs I make manifests with that have no GUI do not come up at all, as if they're dead). This is fine as I intend (for, at least, programs I'd like to show off) to use a fancy GUI, but the observation led me to an interesting question.
Is the console window just there as a debugging tool? I mean, is it not intended for larger projects and just used for development to roughly see where the program is going and such? Or is this just something to do with my IDE and can java programs be run as stand-alone from the console?