Basic4GL for Java

For the past few months a member of the Basic4GL forum has been developing a version which runs on Java. There is a thread on the forum here which contains more information however the Basic4GL Facebook page here has the most up-to-date developments on the project. If you'd like to download the newest version it can be found here on the developers site.

Installing Java 7

In the past I'd tried installing the Java 7 JDK but the Installer would never successfully complete.

I eventually got it to install by downloading the combined JDK & NetBeans Installer.

I still don't know why this installation problem exists. A quick search on the Internet doesn't provide many answers as most people who are encountering these problems are using Linux rather than Windows.

OpenGL in your browser

In the past you've had to use JOGL but soon you'll be able to use WebGL.

OOP Concepts

Useful information about the concepts involved in Object Oriented Programming can be found here.

TIOBE Rankings

Java is still at number One in the TIOBE Rankings, you can read more here.

New Google Chrome Version

I was browsing on FileHippo & noticed there was a new version of Google Chrome. So I downloaded & decided to try it out & was happy to discover that it is now compatible with Java. If you want to see the results for yourself, try visiting the 3D Mountains Java Applet page here. Even the JOGL example which can be found here works too.

Java Applet Examples

Useful Java Applets can be found on the following pages.

• Hidden Surface Removal, here.
• 3D Mountains, here.
• Fractal Terrains, here.
  

Java Criticism

There seems to be just as many sites that are critical of Java as there are C++.

• Java Sucks, read here.
• Why Sun thinks Java sucks, here.
• Java Hall of Shame, read here.
• Java Sucks a little more, here.
  

Virtual Functions & Inheritance

If you're writing in an Object Oriented language you'll want to make sure you make use of features such as Virtual Functions & Inheritance.

Useful Java Links

Here are some links I've put together to help if you're trying to learn Java.

• Apache Ant can be downloaded here.
• An Apache Ant tutorial can be found here.
• Jogl can be downloaded from here.
• Jogl NeHe ports can be found here.
• A Jogl HelloWorld program can be found here.
  

Java HelloApp Program

I've recently been using Java again, so I thought I'd present some simple programs you can run in Java. Just type the following into a text editor but be careful because Java is case sensitive. Certain commands are expected to be entered using upper case letters.

public class HelloApp
{
   public static void main(String[] args)
   {
       System.out.println("Hello, World!");
   }
}

Save the file as HelloApp.java & compile it with the following...

javac HelloApp.java

Run it with the following...

java HelloApp

If you want to generate documentation using JavaDoc just type the following...

javadoc -d docs HelloApp.java

Finally, if you'd like to place your class in a Jar file, you must first create a Manifest file. Just place the following text in a file called Manifest.txt & make sure you place a newline at the end.

Main-Class: HelloApp

Then create the Jar file by typing the following...

jar cvfm HelloApp.jar Manifest.txt *.class

Run the Jar file with the following...

java -jar HelloApp.jar

The Art of Java

Out of all the Java programming books I've seen over the years this is one of the best. I first read it when it came out back in 2003 & it's still worth reading. Some sample chapters & the full source code for the example programs can be downloaded from here.

Play DOS Games in your Browser

Another wonderful example of what you can do with the Java programming language can be found here. It's a website which lets you play classic DOS games in your browser.

NetBeans & JOGL

I've just downloaded the Java SE version of the NetBeans IDE from here & I also downloaded the JOGL plugin from here. The plugin comes with a lot of example programs such as those from the OpenGL redbook & several interesting examples showing you how to embed OpenGL Graphics in a form.

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Programming in Lisp

A lot more people seem to be talking about Lisp nowadays, if you don't know what it is you might want to check out this Wikipedia page & there's a very good tutorial for learning Lisp here.

The easiest way to install a version of Lisp if you're using Windows is to visit the newLisp website here & download a copy. The newLisp IDE requires Java, so you'll need to get a copy of the JRE from here.

JCreator Java IDE

JCreator is a lightweight IDE for Java programming, I used to use it a lot before I got a new computer that was powerful enough to run Eclipse & NetBeans. I've recently started using it again & have found it quite useful; tedious tasks such as creating .jar files & javadoc can easily be automated & it's very fast & responsive. If you're going to download, I would suggest you get the JCreator LE version.

New Java Version released

A new version of Java has been released & can be downloaded from here. As I occasionally write programs in Java I downloaded the JDK 6 Update 12 version.

Coding in Groovy

Groovy is a language that compiles to Java bytecode & can be used wherever Java can. I've just downloaded & installed the Windows version, anyone else who's interested in Groovy should check out this thread on the Ubuntu forum.

Image Resizing Update

Online tools for resizing images can be found at the following links...

• Online tool written in Java here.
• Another Online tool written in Flash here.

A good description of the image resizing algorithm can be found here.

Processing

Processing is an Open Source programming language that I first heard about in this post on the Ubuntu forum. You can download it from here, I recommend you get the Java version even if you've got a JDK already installed.