Computing at Home CSE 142/143

Introduction

1. The Java SDK from Sun
2. Jeva: a Java interpreter
3. BlueJ: a Java development environment
4. Local CSE142/143 libraries

If you want to work at home, you are on your own to some extent in terms of getting stuff set up. Ask friends, read documentation, post a question on the bulletin board, ask us -- but we can't be guaranteed to have an answer. Ultimately you're on your own with your home computer. The lab is always available as a fallback.

Regardless of the development environment that you use, the code you turn in should only rely on the standard Sun Java libraries, and libraries that are distributed by us. Your code should not rely on "wizards", special libraries that might be provided with your environment, or code that comes from the Internet or friends.  The programs you give us will be compiled and run using our set-up.

Java SDK

Go visit the Java2 home page (really, the page where  you can download the SDK1.3 from). Currently, the Java 2 SDK can be installed and run on Windows 95/98/NT/W2000, as well as a variety of Unix variants, including Linux and Sun/Solaris. Java 2 version 1.3 is included with Mac OS X, so you should be able to run the course software on OS X without having to install Java 2 first.  Java 2 is not available for the classic Mac OS (OS 9 and earlier).

The distribution is big, roughly 31MB, so if you're connecting by slow modem, it's going to be a pain. DSL or CableModem users should have an easier time. The CD provided with the Riley textbook includes the Java 2 SDK. To install, double-click on the j2sdk-XXX.exe installer program that you downloaded from Sun, or that's on the Riley CD, and then follow the instructions. A couple of notes:

• It may help to install it in a location where the pathname has NO spaces. For example, don't use C:\Program Files\etc\etc, but instead something like C:\jdk1.3 or C:\jdk1.3.1 (the default names picked by the JDK installer). Sometimes other software is not very tolerant of the spaces in the pathname.  Our course software doesn't seem to have a problem with spaces in path names, but some Unix-based tools have problems.
• It's also worth writing down the name of the directory where you install the JDK when you do it (e.g. "C:\jdk1.3.1"). You'll need to enter this when you install BlueJ, below.
• Be sure you install the Java Development Kit (JDK).  There is a smaller package called the Java Runtime Environment (JRE), which is a subset of the JDK that includes files needed to run, but not create, Java programs.  The JRE is not adequate for our purposes -- be sure to get the JDK.
• A large part of the JDK distribution is source code.  You don't need to install the source code, or the native library header files, or the demos; only the program files.  (You'll eventually get the option of what you want to install when you run the j2sdk-XXX.exe installer program that you downloaded from Sun.)

Jeva and the Remaining Software

1. Be sure you have already installed the Sun Java 2 JDK first (see above).
2. Create a folder for the CSE142/CSE143 files.  In these instructions, we'll assume it's named C:\CSE. You can use any other folder as long as the name of that folder, and any containing folders, do not have spaces (i.e., don't put your files in C:\Program Files, for example).
3. Open C:\CSE and create two folders inside named tools and lib.
4. Download the following files and place them in C:\CSE\lib:  uwcse.jar  jeva.jar
5. If you're running on a Windows system, download the one of the following files that corresponds to the course that you're taking and place it in C:\CSE\tools:  jeva-142.bat  OR  jeva-143.bat.  If you're downloading to a Unix system, then download one of the following files instead:  jeva-142.sh  OR  jeva-143.sh; after downloading you'll need to edit the JEVADIR environment variable setting in the .sh file to match where you installed your course software (whatever your equivalent of C:\CSE is).  If you're downloading on Mac OS X (earlier Mac systems don't support Java), then download the appropriate Unix .sh script; if you'd like to enable double-clicking on its icon to run it, then rename it to have a .command extension.
6. Try to run jeva-142.bat (or jeva-143.bat) by double-clicking on it.  [Note: your Windows configuration may hide the .bat extension.]  If it works, giving a prompt like "JevaESCLI-0>", great; type control-C to exit or click the close button.  If it doesn't work, but instead prints out messages about being out of environment space (as it did when I tried to run it under Windows 98), then right-click on jeva-142.bat (or jeva-143.bat), select Properties, click on the Memory tab, set Initial environment to 1024, and click OK. Retry running jeva-142.bat (or jeva-143.bat); it should give a nice Jeva prompt now.

BlueJ

1. Be sure you have installed the Sun SDK first.  You don't need to have Jeva installed already, however.
2. BlueJ is available from www.bluej.org.  Download the latest BlueJ version (currently 1.1.6) from their distribution page. The download is around 1MB, so it's reasonable to download even over a modem. The bluej.jar file can be placed anywhere.
3. Double-click bluej.jar to install BlueJ.  You can install this anywhere; for the rest of these instructions, we'll assume that you're installing it in C:\CSE\tools\bluej.  There may be a bug in the installer that prevents the browse button from working properly; if so, you'll have to manually enter C:\CSE\tools\bluej in the field for the install directory name.  You also have to say where you installed the Java JDK, e.g., C:\jdk1.3.1.

Special Libraries for CSE142/143

1. You must have the Sun SDK and BlueJ successfully installed before continuing.
2. Open C:\CSE\tools\bluej and click on bluej.bat to start BlueJ.  (If you get an out-of-environment-space error, repeat the technique from step 6 above to increase the .bat file's environment space.) You need to tell BlueJ where it can find the CSE142/143 library file.  Do the following:
1. Choose Tools>preferences and click on the Libraries tab in the dialog box that opens.
2. Click add and then navigate to and select the file C:\CSE\lib\uwcse.jar. Click open (or double-click on uwcse.jar), then click ok.
3. Click ok once more and then quit BlueJ.  Restart to use the new libraries.

Textbook Libraries

As you read the textbook, you may come across references to special Java libraries and sample code that the textbook authors have created.  You do not need these for CSE142/143.   Please do not use them for assignments that you turn in.  Of course, you are welcome to study the code samples in the textbook.  As you do, please keep in mind that they may use features or libraries which will not be discussed in our course.

Old School

Last updated 04/02/2002 09:07 PM