RE: VRPG And/Or Java

At 06:24 PM 8/28/97 -0500, Ed wrote:

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BTW, I concur with everything you say in the above

>The integrated development environment.  If you use the JDK, you don't   
>get an IDE similar to Microsoft's Visual J++ or JBuilder or Symantec   
>Cafe.  To edit files and compile programs, you must use a text editor and   
>DOS command-line arguments.  This can be extremely frustrating.  (The   
>Microsoft book _Learn Java Now!_ provides a version of the Microsoft   
>Developer's Studio that has Java 1.0.  I've used this for awhile, and I   
>quite like it.)

Sun has an integrated development environment called Java Workshop. Version
2 is in beta and it's free for now. It looks pretty nice.

IBM's Visual Age for Java is another one. It's received very positive
reviews, and I agree. The AS/400 Toolkit for Java is supposed to work with
it, too, at least the commercial version. An entry-level version is
available on the Web, and it's also free. The standard version can be had
for less than $100 US. It is really an amazing IDE, letting you drag/drop
not only controls but also connections between them. Check out the August
NEWS/400 for a quick HOWTO. Start at one of the following to get more
information:

        http://www.ibm.com/java

or

        http://ncc.hursley.ibm.com/javainfo/hursley.html


>Learning materials may not match the release of Java supplied.  The most   
>current release of Java is 1.1.3 (I think).  Many books still only cover   
>Java 1.0.  Some books with Java on CD ROM discuss Java 1.1 concepts, but   
>only have a 1.0 compiler.

Sun has a tutorial, available at their home Web site

        http://www.javasoft.com

or

        http://www.javasoft.com:81 (for a Java-driven version)

in HTML format. You can download it and run it from your own machine or
network. There are some typos, so watch out. (The _first_ example has
square brackets in the wrong place in the main function--they're supposed
to follow 'args'.)

>If you're at all curious, I recommend a book called _Core Java_ by Gary   
>Cornell & Cay S. Horstmann.  The book goes to great lengths to explain   
>OOP concepts practically (something that most programming books don't   
>have), and has a bit of humor in it (something that most programming   
>books also don't have), and then discusses Java as a useful language,   
>with some good examples.

I like anything by Gary Cornell--he's written some excellent Visual Basic
books, too. They had the same practicality and whimsy.

>I say give it a go.  It's not expensive, it's kinda fun once you get   
>going, and you can crack into the world of OOP without having to go into   
>the C lion's den.

Right on!

Vernon Hamberg
Systems Software Programmer
Old Republic National Title Insurance Company
400 Second Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55401
(612) 371-1111 x480
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