The Java Environment and its components

Java environment includes a large number of development tools and hundreds of classes and methods.

The development tools are part of the system known as java development kit(JDK) and the classes and methods are part of the java standard library(JSL), also known as Application programming interface(API).

Java development kit:-

The java development kit comes with a collection of tools are used for developing and running java programs.They include:

• Applet viewer (for viewing applets)
• Javac (java compiler)
• Java (java interpreter)
• Javap (java dissembler)
• Javah (for c header files)
• Javadoc (for creating HTML documents)
• Jdb (java debugger)

1. Applet viewer enables us to run java applets
2. Java interpreter, which runs applets and applications by reading and interpreting byte code files.
3. Javac- the java compiler, which translates java source code to byte code files that the interpreter can understand.
4. Javadoc- creates HTML format documentation from java source code files.
5. Javah-produces header files for use with native methods.
6. Jdb- java debugger, which helps us to find errors in our program.

                                                                 

                                                  figure:-  process of building and running java application prgrams

To create a java program, we need to create a source code file using a text editor, th source code is then compiled using the java compiler Javac and executed using the java interpreter java. The java debugger Jdb is used to find errors, if any, in the source code.

A compiled java program can be converted into a source code with the help of java dissembler Javap

Application programming interface:-

The java standard library (or API) includes headers of classes and methods grouped into several functional units. Most commonly used packages are

• Language support package
• Utilities package
• Input/out package
• Networking package
• AWT package
• Applets package