[ncjimn]

I'm a newbie as you can see.

I am currently taking a Java course, I can find my way around on the school's computers. However I haven't been able to compile/run the programs on my laptop (Win XP). I did go to sun.java.com and installed a JDK and some other stuff. My guess is I installed it wrong or not completely/correctly.

So:

Can anyone please tell me exactly what I need to install so I can compile/run .java files on my computer?

So far we have done simple programs, all output to the terminal window. We also modify some simple GUIs.

At school we use Linux/Solaris computers. I just want to work on my programs at home and be able to test them.

Thank you.

[jaeusm]

If you have properly installed the JDK, you should be able to compile and run Java programs. Open the command prompt and navigate to your source files. Type 'javac filename.java' to compile your program. Be sure to leave off the quotes. Enter 'java filename' to run the class file. If you have any errors, you may need to manually set your PATH variable.