This document was written by CS 290W TA Joshua Kay and was last modified .
What is the JDK?
JDK stands for Java Development Kit. It is the bare-bones kit provided for free by Sun. It is available for download at http://www.java.sun.com. (Click on JDK and follow the download instructions.) This allows compiling, debugging, and autodocumentation of documents. In order to use the JDK, you will write your java programs in a text editor, save them as plain text, and then compile and run them using a Unix command. The JDK will also work on PCs. You can download a copy and run JDK programs in an MS-DOS window. If you wish to run JDK programs on any other operating system and need help, you should post your questions to the newsgroup purdue.class.cs290w.
What version are we using for this course?
PUCC has available on mentor.cc.purdue.edu a release of JDK 1.1. But, we will be teaching the 1.0 Event model for this course. This is because the browser available in PUCC labs is Netscape 4.05, which does not yet support the 1.1 Event model. The Event model will be explained in detail later, so don't worry if you don't know what we are talking about here. Basically - the Event model covers what happens when the user does something; e.g. - moves the mouse, clicks the mouse button, hits a key, etc.
Because we are using the 1.0 Event model, but running the JDK 1.1 -- when you compile your program you will sometimes get a warning message that says you are using "deprecated methods". Deprecated methods are methods that were used in the JDK 1.0, but have been rewritten for the JDK 1.1, and may not be available in the future. This is the tradeoff we must make for this class - we have to use the old Event model because of our browser.
Anyone who wishes to learn the newer model, is more than welcome to post messages to the newsgroup about how to do things. But please note that we grade *ALL* of your work by how it looks and whether or not it works when we look at your Website using Netscape 4.05. So, you *MUST* use the 1.0 event model, or your programs won't work, and we won't be able to give you a good grade.