Is your Machine Java Ready?

We become what we behold. We shape our tools and then our tools shape us.
Marshall McLuhan

My father in law used to own a hardware store. When I would occasionally visit the store I would gaze at all the tools he had in his inventory. Initially, I thought that just owning the tools would make me handy. He warned me thought that just owning the tool is just the start. We need to know how to use the tool and when to use the tool. There are a few tools we need to have to develop Java code. Let’s go over what you need and how we use them.

What do you need

I remember starting my Java development career. The three items we will discuss confused me. When do you need the JDK? When do you need the JRE? These questions and why can’t the Cubs win a World Series. The last question was resolved in 2016 the rest we will cover here.

JDK

When you want to do software development you need the Java Development Kit or JDK for short. It contains the compiler which takes your code and makes an executable. The current link for Java 11 Development Kit is here.

JRE

The Java Runtime Environment or JRE is for running the programs that you create with the JDK. It is a subset of the JDK. End users will need this on their machine or device to run the software…