Sometime next week I'll be starting my 2nd year university class, where we finally learn Java. :D They never gave us a good program to write or run C++ with in my class last year, so I'm not expecting much guidance for that this year either. What are some good programs to write/run Java with? I have Notepad++, and a Cygwin (sp?) compiler for C++. I don't know if it will compile Java as well. Any suggestions? :D

Well, to first develop in java you're going to need to get the JDK - easily obtainable from Oracle's site. Assuming that automatically adds to the classpath (sometimes it doesn't seem to), you should be fine to compile / run via a command-prompt.

 

After that - I've personally got used to using an IDE but it can become too much of a dependency at times. ;) Personally, I use NetBeans, others that are strongly recommended are Eclipse and IntelliJ's IDEA.

 

Really that comes down to personal preference a lot of the time, but I found Eclipse a bit... 'clunky', whereas NetBeans was quite nice and a more standardised interface - they'll all work though!

 

On a side-note: Entering my second year in a week's time, we started with Java in the first year. :P What type of course is it?

A four-year Bachelor of Science degree is what I'm going for. I took a few of my second year classes during the summer, to lighten the load for the next semester. :P I'm excited to start the other courses though, they look much more interesting! I bookmarked the page with the JDK's on it, I'll download one sooner or later. :D

I'd recommend netbeans, it's really a great IDE.

I use eclipse for large projects. Otherwise, I normally use command line + notepad++.

Hmm command line and Notepad++ is what I'm used too. I might try one of the IDE's sometime though, they sound like they would certainly make things easier. :D Thanks for the replies guys. :)