Getting set up

Java Development Kit — Oracle or OpenJDK

There is a good chance that you already have the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) on your computer, but in order to write, compile, and run our Java Programs, we need a Java Development Kit (JDK). The one from Oracle can be used for this course and can be obtained here.

Alternatively, you may use OpenJDK which is actually the reference implementation.

Either way, make sure you are using JDK version 11 or higher.

Other JDKs

There exist other distributions of JDks out there. Two cool ones are Amazon’s Corretto and Microsoft’s OpenJDK. You don’t need these, but I thought I would let you know they exist.

Integrated Development Environment

We will use the IntelliJ IDE. We will use the community edition, but feel free to use the educational one if you want.

If you really prefer another IDE, reach out to me to ask about using it. Chances are you will be fine, but to be safe, run it by me first.

But, What’s Official?

Officially:

We are using the Oracle or OpenJDK
We are using IntelliJ
Everything must run on the lab computers

I’ve Still Got Issues

If you are unsure about:

Which processor architecture you have
What is a compressed folder vs. an installer
What about if I am using operating system X
etc.

I am confident you can find the answers on my favourite website