This quarter I am taking a Java class as part of my computer science program at Eastern Washington University. For the class we are using the jGRASP IDE and Java JDK 7. However, we are not required to use a specific operating system for the course. My main OS is of course Mac OSX, as I own and carry around a MacBook Pro.
Apple no longer preinstalls their own version of Java on Macs as of OSX 10.7 Lion. However, if launch any application requiring Java, or type "java - version" into the terminal, you will be prompted to download and install Java. This however will only install version the older version 6 of the JRE and JDK. Both will work fine for jGRASP, but I like to have the latest version.
To get the latest version, you need only to download the JDK, as the JDK included the JRE. ( I assume you are doing Java programming just like myself.) Go to this page, click the "Accept License Agreement" button, and choose the download for "Mac OS X x64". When your download finishes, mount the DMG file and follow the steps through the installer. Proceed to downloading the jGRASP installer here. Extract the installer and run it. Congratulations, you now should have a fully functional installation of jGRASP and the Java JDK.
It's worth noting that Java, once installed, adds a control panel to System Preferences. Use this control panel to check Java for updates and modify Java security settings. You can also use the Java control panel to enable or disable different versions of Java, as it is possible to have more than one version of the JDK installed at a time. One last piece of information to consider is that the JRE 7 from Oracle will not work with Google Chrome. If you must have Java capability in Chrome, then stick with the Apple version of Java.
2 comments:
I hated using jGRASP. It's really simple and easy to use, but the syntax highlighting sucks, and the indentation formatting thing is annoying. Plus the interface is really outdated for something that's actively maintained.
I simply used Sublime Text and compiled from terminal for the first week or two of my class before eventually just switching to Eclipse. I only ever used jGRASP to grab screenshots for the assignments when necessary.
Agreed. Jgrasp is a piece of garbage, but for beginning programming students it doesn't provide the autocomplete crutch the way Eclipse or other IDEs do. The only thing it does that Sublime cant do is debug.
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