Compiling a Java applet (Mac OSX)

Question

I'm currently working on an applet that works with Fourier's series. It doesn't really matter because my question is about Java Applet compilers.

Is there a way to compile .java files on Mac OSX. I tried with the terminal but can't find why the code doesn't compile well.

I'm trying with this open-source code

http://www.falstad.com/fourier/

If you, Java devs could take a look at this, I would be so thankful !

Answer 1

Perhaps worth a read, is Apple's Java Development Documentation . Essentially, all the basics you need to be creating applets (compiler, API, docs) is already present on your Mac.

Rather than trying to run things through the terminal though, you should consider perhaps installing an IDE to make things a bit simpler for you. Popular choices on Mac OSX include (in no particular order) Xcode , NetBeans , Eclipse , and IntelliJ . I personally prefer NetBeans, but I haven't tried IntelliJ so I can't comment as to its ease of use.

Answer 2

It should be just fine. I've used Java under linux, mac and windows and Mac is really no different to linux. It's just a bash shell after all at the command line level. To get started you have two options - install the Mac developer tools (Big download just to get Java) or download a JDK and install it. I can't remember if a base Mac OS X has a JDK installed or not so I'm assuming it's just a JRE installed by default. I don't have my Mac in front of me so I cannot give you the exact details, but I can tell you that the Mac OS X directory locations are slightly different to those on a linux box. But the principal is the same. So if you need to install a JDK I'd recommend spending a little time exploring the directory structures of Mac OS X and getting an understanding of how it is setup.

Yes, IDEs are a great way to go and can save a lot of time. But it's always worth understanding how things work at the command line level, because it's something that you will undoubtedly end up using at some stage.