Can't open javac

Question

Hello. I'm new to java, but I've been trying for a while to figure out how to compile a .java file. My problem is that I can't open javac.exe. When I double click on the file a black command-line window pops up for a half a second, displays a bunch of text, and then closes before I have a chance to read it or take any action. I've tried to open javac.exe from the shell by typeing >start 'c:\etc\javac.exe' but this does nothing. (note: I have no experience in a command line/shell environment.)
I'm sure I'm just doing something wronge, but I can't figure out what it is, or how I'm supposed to access javac.exe (is it accessed by another program I'm supposed to be using?).
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

First of all, let me know the version of the JDK or J2SDK u've installed.
There'll b a 'bin' folder inside the java installation folder. All the executables are placed over ther. You need to include that folder in your path. For this, right click on MyComputer--> go to Properties--> Advanced tab --> Environment Variables --> either in system variables or in the user variables, create a new variable with name "path" ( if not exists already) --> and give the full path of 'bin', and click ok.
For ex: in my case it is path = D:\j2sdk1.4.1_02\bin
Then open command prompt ( start --> run--> cmd). Then type javac. If it gives the usage, it means that it recognized the javac, else you missed something.
Then go to the location of your java file, and type javac filename.java. It compiles the file and generates .class files for all the classes.
Then you can execute the class as, java filename
Ex : D:\>javac test.java
D:\>java test
Hope this helps ...
If you are using Textpad or EditPlus, sometimes we have to explicitely configure this, ie we need to explicitly point to these .exe files.
Sriram.