[MrOrang]

I know there already exists a ton of guides on this subject but I will not only cover installing Java but also some tools and ide's. I'm also posting this because yea why not?

Installing Java 8
First off you want to head to this link. You want to download the latest JDK which should be Java SE 8u25. Now that you are at the download page you want to click Windows x64 if your pc is 64bit and you want to click on Windows x86 if your pc is 32 bit, also don’t forget to accept the license agreement. The JDK already includes the JRE so we won’t have to download that.
The JDK offers developer tools and all other tools and the JRE only offers the tools required to run Java.
Now that you downloaded the JDK(Should take 1 to 5 minutes) you want to open the file and continue normal setup by clicking next every time. After you’re done installing the JDK you want to click close and navigate to the folder where you installed Java to. For me this would be C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_25.

Setting your PATH/JAVA_HOME
This step is important as most IDE’s(Integrated-Development-Environment) will require you to do so.
You want to open your computer properties. In Windows 7 you do this by clicking on the start button then right clicking on computer and selecting properties. In Windows 8.1 you want to click the start button too then select the computer icon and right clicking on that and selecting properties. Now you want to click on “Advanced system settings”. After you got the System Properties window you will have to click on Environment Variables at the bottom of the window. You want to copy the path to the JDK and create a new System Variable named JAVA_HOME. As value you want to put in the JDK path you copied. It should look something like this:

The next step is to look for a variable called Path and edit that. If the variable doesn’t end with a semicolon you must add one. Now you want to paste in the JDK path with \bin behind it. You MUST NOT delete any other text that was already in your Path variable as it will seriously mess up your pc.
If you also want to use JNI(Java Native Interface) you have to put another semicolon after your last value and paste in the JDK path again but now with /include behind it.
To test if you installed Java correctly you can open up cmd and type both java –help and javac –help. If they show something with commands you know you installed Java correctly. Now we will be talking about other things you could do to improve your experience with Java.

Setting Max Memory Usage
This will allow you to give more memory to Java programs. To do this you want to open up control panel and look for Java. Now that you’re in the Java control panel you must select the tab called Java. There’s only one button called View you want to click it and now you should see a window called Java Runtime Environment Settings in the column called Runtime Parameters you want to enter -Xmx 8GB or the amount you desire to allocate for Java. It should now look something like this:

You then want to click on OK and then want to click on Apply in the other window. Memory is less of a problem now because Oracle removed PermGen in Java 8 but I still decided to put this part in.


IDE's
Eclipse
Eclipse is probably the most used IDE for Java. It has all the basic features and allows custom plugins. You can also code in C++, Scala, Python/Jython and many more languages. The software is 100% free too so that's nice.

Website

NetBeans
NetBeans is a Java, HTML5, PHP and C/C++ IDE. The developer of this IDE is Oracle. The project originated from a project called "Xelfi" that was developed in Prague in 1997. Sun then started a project called NetBeans in 2000 and Oracle bought Sun meaning Oracle now owns NetBeans. I've never really used this IDE so I can't say a lot about it.

Website

IntelliJ
I would say IntelliJ is the best and most professional Java IDE around imo. It has a free community version but also offers a paid ultimate version which offers more features. IntelliJ also integrates version control and many other things such as maven. It also has very nice default themes and also has a lot of nice plugins. I am currently developing with this ide.
I would say that this IDE is for the more advanced Java developers as it has a ton of features most beginners would never use.

Website

Some Other Tools
First I would like to tell you that there are way more tools but these are some I used in the past/still use. If you would like to see more tools in here just post a link in a reply and I'll add it.
The first two tools can be found inside the bin folder of you JDK.
- Oracle Java Mission Control
This program is known as jmc.exe. It allows you to monitor, profile and troubleshoot your Java program. There are more programs like this and I will not be going in-depth with this.
- JVisualVM
This program also allows monitor and troubleshooting for your Java program. It is also known as jvisualvm.exe I have personally used this program to see if my Bukkit server had any memory leaks or other problems.
- YourKit
YourKit is a paid Java profiler but also has a demo version. I've personally used this program for a short time and I really liked it.
- JD-Gui
A simple Java decompiler with a gui. This makes compiled code readable again. There are however better decompilers such as Fernflower. A recent thread in this forum also said that there could be hidden code in your decompiled code because of some opcodes iirc.


Read Me!
Hey, I hope you liked my little guide. If you have any suggestions/anything I could improve on please let my know by either pmming me or replying to this thread.

Hoping to improve this thread over time and make it way bigger as I don't think it's that big yet.

[-zERAiT]

Well written tutorial, Looka. I'm sure this will be usefull for others, thank you!

[Aceman]

Great tutorial Looka, very much enjoyed it. 🙂

[Bibl]

ayyyyyy luka learnt how 2 install an ide

[кovu]

Nice tutorial. I personally use Eclipse with Saros + Git, but have thought about moving to IntelliJ. Well written and not too wordy.

[JavaProfit]

Not useful to me specifically, but it looks sexy and is really HQ. Keep it up.

[clrlslwi]

ayyyyyy luka learnt how 2 install an ide

ayyyyy Bibl got banned for LQ posting for the 99999th time.

Spoiler (Click to View)
lmao


OT: Decent guide, although it probably won't be useful to most people who come here.

[Trisomy 21]

I mean come on now, if you are going to put your group's name on a tutorial thread, at least make a useful tutorial.