J2EE vs J2SE vs JDK?

[nooneinparticular314159]

Hello. I am new to Java. I would like to be able to create both Java
applets and Applications, and I want to try to use the Netbeans IDE.
There seem to be many different versions of Java on Sun's site, and I
am confused about what I really need.

Can you tell me the difference between J2EE, J2SE, and JDK?

Why does J2EE want to install a server on my machine?

Why does the option to create new applications disappear from the
Netbeans Create New Project window?

Netbeans doesn't seem to want to create applets separately from an
unrelated web appication. Any idea why? How do I use it to just
create a regular applet?

Thanks!

 

[Bjorn Abelli]

Hello. I am new to Java.

Then a more appropriate group to ask you questions in,
would be comp.lang.java.help.

I would like to be able to create both Java
applets and Applications, and I want to try
to use the Netbeans IDE.
There seem to be many different versions of
Java on Sun's site, and I am confused about
what I really need.

Can you tell me the difference between J2EE, J2SE, and JDK?

In short, J2SE is an acronym for Java 2 Standard Edition, which comes in
different flavours. If you just want to be able to "run" Java applications
you just need the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) of it. If you want to
develop things in Java, you want the JDK (Java Development Kit).

As you're new to Java, stay away from J2EE for the time being. J2EE is the
Java 2 Enterprise Edition, which is an *extension* to J2SE, and supplies
foremost server-side technologies, such as Servlets, JSP and Enterprise
Javabeans.

To develop applications and applets, you just need the J2SE JDK, not J2EE.

Why does J2EE want to install a server on my machine?

For you to be able to run server-side applications, as mentioned above.

For the Netbeans questions, someone more familiar with that environment
possibly could answer that question.

// Bjorn A

 

[Kevin McMurtrie]

Hello. I am new to Java. I would like to be able to create both Java
applets and Applications, and I want to try to use the Netbeans IDE.
There seem to be many different versions of Java on Sun's site, and I
am confused about what I really need.

Can you tell me the difference between J2EE, J2SE, and JDK?

J2SE - Java 2 Standard Edition. This is what most people need for a
Servlet/Beans/JSP/XML/JDBC web application or Swing desktop application.

J2EE - Java 2 Enterprise Edition. This is J2SE plus RMI tools, EJB, an
EJB server, and other distributed computing tools. There's a high
development overhead to using J2EE features so don't bother unless you
need them.

JDK - Java Development Kit. You always want to add this to your J2SE or
J2EE runtime for Java development. It contains the JFC source code,
which is very handy, and some additional tools.

Why does J2EE want to install a server on my machine?

Because you can't have distributed Java objects without one.

Why does the option to create new applications disappear from the
Netbeans Create New Project window?

Try Eclipse 3.1 if you have 1GB of RAM. It's a much more polished IDE.