Java Swing Programming Environments

These links were assembled in April, 2000, to help students figure out what programming environments are available for Java Swing. Swing is a set of Java classes that can be used to build graphical user interfaces. Newer versions of some of these software packages may now be available.

Solaris: Solaris is the only programming platform officially supported by the department, so all of your projects should run on Solaris machines in 100 Deschutes. If you can figure out how to set up and maintain the development environments, you may use other platforms for development. But your final projects should run on the Solaris machines in 100 Deschutes, and so you should test your code regularly on these machines.

Java 2 SDK Standard Edition 1.2 for Solaris. (Java 2 SDK SE 1.2 is formerly known as JDK 1.2.) This environment is available on the Solaris machines in 100 Deschutes. Excellent on-line documentation is available at the Java 2 API Specification. Another published sources that will be helpful if you use Java Swing in this environment is Sun's web site Creating a GUI with JFC/Swing.

You can gain access to the Java for Solaris programming environment, when logged onto a CIS server, by typing the following line at the unix prompt or by adding it near the very end of your .cshrc file:

setenv PATH /usr/local/apps/Java/jdk-1.2/bin:$PATH

Be sure that no previous versions of swing-1.1.1, jdk-1.1, or classes.zip are also added to your PATH.

Sadly, a debugger is not available in this programming environment.
Windows: If you have a Windows machine, there are several possible programming environments that you can explore. Two environments available for Windows are Java 2 SDK and Metrowerks CodeWarrior.; Java 2 SDK v 1.2.2 for Windows 95/98/NT is available at no cost but with no debugger.

Metrowerks CodeWarrior, Professional Edition 5.0 claims to offer full support for JDK 1.2 and Swing. My experience with CodeWarrior (both on the Macintosh and Windows machines) is that it is a powerful and relatively easy-to-use Integrated Programming Environment (IDE), with a powerful debugger. CodeWarrior should be available at the UofO bookstore at educational pricing. CodeWarrior requires a minimum of 32 meg of RAM, 120 meg of hard drive space, and a CD-ROM drive.

Microsoft does not evidently support JDK 1.2 or Swing with any of their Java products.
Macintosh: JDK 1.2 is not yet implemented for the Macintosh (as of April, 2000). Apple has released MRJ 2.2 which implements Sun's JDK 1.1.8 specification and can be used with the Metrowerks CodeWarrior, Professional Edition 5.0 development environment. (Metrowerks provides nearly-identical IDE's for both the Mac and Windows.) But many key classes will not be available, "Iterator" being one of many, and so it would not be very difficult for you to do the class projects.
A. Hornof - 9/20/00