General Lab Information

Note: For lab times goto [TA's & Tutors] page.

This section contains general information about things you will need to know how to do in order compile, run and submit your completed programs.

If you need additional background information, you should definitely check out the resources CATS (Communications and Technology Services) provides. They are located downstairs in the Communications building. There is also an online tutorial, Nettrail, for learning about using The Web, email, newsgroups, and Melvyl (the electronic library information system).

If you need help getting tio working on your Windows95/98 machine look here.

Compiling and running Java programs

In the lab we will be using the standard/free JDK from Sun Microsystems running under Windows/NT. You will use any editor and then run javac to compile your program and java to execute it as described below. You can also run Java on angus (a NetBSD) machine, or manray (a Solaris machine). I don't know what the load will be on either of those machines. On angus your usual unix file structure is available.

When you first sit down at the workstation you need to run a batch file that will set up some environment variables for you. To do that run the batch file:
PC Files on F:\Programming\Sun Java Development\Start jdk.bat
You can run this by either double clicking the "F:" icon on the desktop and then double clicking the other folders in the path, or you can use the file system browser program "Exploring NT" which you will find under the Start button on the control bar at the bottom left corner of the screen.
The "Start jdk.bat" file will display a file with some information that you will want to read the first time. In the future you can just close this window immediately by clicking the X in the upper right corner of the window.
Now you must start a command line shell which you do by clicking the Start icon in the lower left corner and then clicking Programs and then clicking "Command Prompt".
To create your Java program, you can use any editor. A reasonable choice is SuperEdit which you will find under the Start/Programs just as you did for the Command Prompt.
After typing in your file, save it, either to a floppy or to c:\usertemp.
In the "Command Prompt" window, first cd to the directory containing your Java source file, e.g. MyClass.java. You compile a java program with "javac MyClass.java".
In the "Command Prompt" window, you run a compiled Java program with "java MyClass" (no extension) where MyClass is the name of a class that contains a method main().
When you are done, be sure and save your work either on a floppy or use ftp to transfer the Java source files to your Unix account, as described below.

FTP and Submit

You will need to ftp your files to your unix account in order to submit your completed programs. In addition, you may wish to use ftp and unix to save your work instead of using a floppy.

The Windows FTP utility can be found under the Start popup menu (lower left corner), then Internet Tools, then Unix File Transfer. This program is very easy to use. Fill in the UserID (your unix login name) and Password fields.

Once connected, you can select a file on the left window (Windows), select a directory in the right window, then click the right pointing arrow in the middle to transfer the file. You can move files or folders in either direction.

Once you have copied your files to your unix account, login to your unix account (Start/Internet Tools/Telnet), and run submit. The command you will type in for your first assignment will be:
submit cmps060n hw1 myFileName.java

To see more info on unix and working with CSE machines, see the other lab pages

Modified by Doug Whitmore on Jan 10, 1998.