DrJava Resources

What is DrJava?

DrJava is an integrated development environment (IDE) developed at Rice University for writing Java programs. It was designed primarily for students, providing an intuitive interface and the ability to interactively evaluate Java code. It also includes powerful features for more advanced users, such as a full-featured debugger.

Installation

• Install or upgrade to J2SE 5.0 before installing DrJava. See the Course Info page for instructions.
• Access http://www.drjava.org.
• Select an appropriate version and download. See below for details:
• Choose a version that handles the latest version of Java (Java 5 for Fall 2005).
• Try the stable version first. Sometimes the beta version is more updated but may also be buggy.
• Select either the platform-independent version (the Jar file) or a platform-dependent version (Windows or Mac executable files). Pick the platform-dependent version if possible.
• You will be directed to a download site. Pick whatever seems to be the fastest.
• If you get a dialog saying something about a JAR archive security check, right-click on the DrJava download link and select Save Link As... (or the equivalent in your browser).
• Place the DrJava .jar file or executable in a convenient location and set a shortcut to it on your desktop.
• Test DrJava with a small Java program, using the latest version of the language.

Running

Refer to the DrJava page for instructions on running DrJava on your platform. Normally, you can just double-click on the shortcut to the .jar file or executable you downloaded.

A Common Problem: Missing tools.jar?

When you run DrJava the first time, you may get the following message:

DrJava cannot find the Java SDK’s tools.jar file. This file is necessary to compile files and use the debugger. It is generally located in the lib subdirectory of your Java installation directory. Would you like to specify its location? (If you say No, DrJava might be unable to compile or debug programs.)

If so, click Yes on the dialog box, navigate to the lib subdirectory of the Java installation directory (on my Windows XP machine, C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.5.0_01\lib\), and select tools.jar. See also the Preferences menu selection, where you can also set the tools.jar location. For an example, look here.