Self-Test Questions

Suggested Projects

1. Operating System Commands:   During your Java programming career you will often be required to interact directly with your computer s operating system via a set of operating-system commands. Obtain an operating system command reference book for your operating system (i.e., Unix/Linux Terminal or Windows Command Prompt) and study the commands. The following table lists several helpful MS-DOS and UNIX commands.

   Table 2-1: Helpful Operating System Commands

   MS-DOS	UNIX	Meaning
   	man, xman	Manual commands to display UNIX system documentation on the terminal.
   	info	Displays documentation on Linux utilities
   help help <command> <command> /?		Displays a list of MS-DOS commands and their use Gets help for a specific command Gets help for a specific command
   dir	ls	List directory contents
   copy	cp	copy file
   rename	mv	change the name of a file
   erase, del	rm	remove file
   env	set	get information about system environment setup

2. Java Command-Line Tools:   Familiarize yourself with all the Java command-line tools that come with the Java SDK. These tools are found in the <JAVA_HOME>\bin directory where JAVA_HOME is an environment variable that represents the path to the J2SDK installation directory.

3. Gather Java Documentation:   Obtain a good Java quick reference guide. My favorite is the Java In A Nutshell series by O Reilly, and is listed in the references section at the end of this chapter. You can also access the latest Java SDK and API documentation directly from the [ java.sun.com ] website.