A simple Java IDE

Written by Anthony Dunk, 1999

This small Java application allows you to edit, compile, and run Java applications and applets. (IDE stands for "Integrated Development Environment").

I wrote this in a few hours so its very simple. However, once you've downloaded Sun's JDK it is handy to have a simple GUI to edit and compile programs - especially under Windows on your PC.

Here is a screen dump of the program running under Unix:

As you can see, the window consists of two TextArea's. The top one contains the source file, and the bottom one is the console where you see the output from the compiler and your running applications.

You can download the source code here. Then, its simply a matter of compiling it using "javac" and then running it using "java". Here's an example:

C:\JDK> javac IDE.java
C:\JDK> java IDE

Note that I've been lazy and used a few deprecated features (i.e. Java 1.0 event model). This is nothing to worry about, but it will result in a warning message when you compile with Java 1.1 and later.

Now, when you run it be sure to click on the "Options" menu and check that the compile, run, and view commands point to the correct Java programs on your machine. If not, just change them. If you get sick of doing this every time you start the IDE, change the commands in the source code and recompile the IDE.

One final note: when you are writing a Java applet, use the "Compile & View" and/or "View only" options to run it. You'll need to create your own html code and name it CLASS.html where CLASS is the name of your class.

Have fun!

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