Appendix B. The Java Development Kit

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The Java Development Kit (JDK) for Java® 2 Platform Standard Edition is a set of command line tools for developing Java programs. It is available for free in versions for recent editions of Microsoft Windows, Linus, Macintosh OS X, and Solaris (Sun Microsystems).

Download information and documentation are available for the entire range of products associated with the Java® 2 Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE) at:

http://java.sun.com/j2se/

This appendix summarizes some of the primary tools available in the JDK. For more detailed information, consult Sun's Web site.

Table B.1 provides a summary of some of the JDK tools.

Table B.1. Tools included in the Java Development Kit

Tool Name	Description
javac	Java compiler. Translates source code into bytecode.
java	Java interpreter. Translates and executes bytecode.
javadoc	Java documentation generator. Creates HTML pages from
	documentation comments embedded in Java programs.
appletviewer	Appletviewer. Used instead of a browser to run Java applets.
jar	Java archive manager. Manages Java archive (JAR) files.
jdb	Java debugger. Used to find bugs in a program.
javap	Java disassembler. Translates bytecode into Java source code.

Sun Microsystems provides detailed instructions on how to install JDK for J2SE on computers running any of the above operating systems, including how to set the system's PATH and CLASSPATH variables. Installation instructions can be located using the above link to downloading information.