macOS Xcode interface and Java programming

[fishinatree]

I'm new here: brand new to the forums and to the world of Java programming and Xcode, and I have some questions that have not been answered by countless searches on developer.apple.com or google:

Evidently Xcode includes a JDK and JRE, but I don't know how to use either.

How do I compile/run a short, simple program like the classic "Hello, world!" one? I have the code written in a text editor, but I don't know how to use Xcode with it.

Thanks!

Edit: I'm running 10.5.2 with Java upgraded to 1.6 on a 2.2 Ghz Macbook.

 

[lee1210]

Still on XCode 2.3 on OS 10.4 here, but hopefully this is similar enough...

File->New Project...->Java section->Java Tool

The default project has a Hello, World! example in the static void main, so that should be enough to get you started.

I can't speak to setting which JDK and JVM to build against/target/etc. so someone else might have to help you out there, as I'm not sure even when you get 1.6 installed that that is the target in XCode.

-Lee

 

[fishinatree]

Thanks, but I still don't really know what's going on here. Any link to a very VERY basic tutorial for Xcode and Java would be useful.

f][sh

 

[blakintosh]

If you have the code you only have to compile and if it has no errors it will run.

The buttons in the toolbar (build, build and run) will compile and run your code for you.

or maybe use a simpler IDE... (http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/development_tools/bluej.html) or check this thread https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/192543/

Hope this helps.

 

[fishinatree]

Thanks...I'll check those out. Xcode might be a bit too complicated for me at this point...

f][sh

 

[lee1210]

Don't call system.exit() in your program if you are working in BlueJ. It runs your program in the same VM as the IDE as a thread, so if you do the editor closes, too.

There are lots of options...
IntelliJ <Just saw this is not free, so I wouldn't consider it>
NetBeans http://www.netbeans.org/
Eclipse http://www.eclipse.org/

XCode is great, but is not cross platform. If you are using Linux at some point in the future, or Windows, you won't have XCode available, but the other IDEs mentioned will be.

If you don't already, you should learn how to compile with javac, run with java, create executable jars with jar, run them with java -jar, etc. Unlike some other things, I wouldn't discourage the use of an IDE unilaterally for Java because of the breadth of the class library, but don't let the IDE be a substitute for knowing how to do things, use it as a tool for speeding up things you could do yourself.

-Lee

 

[yeroen]

If I developed in Java and wanted to use a cross platform IDE, I'd use Netbeans, no question.