JCreator (brief user guide)

 Go back Bottom of page Home page eMail me

Background

I was told that :

even though JAVAC can spot any compilation error and report their LINE NUMBER; students find it hard to locate the exact line number from a lengthy source.

Objectives

Since it is hard to identify a suitable Editor which provides LINE Numbers, therefore, JCreator is suggested. The purpose is to introduce a simple tools to locate the correct line number.

Personally, JCreator isn't my favorite development tools. (Perhaps, you've already noted that I frequently mis-type JBuilder for JCreator.) It can be a helpful tools for you  master your debugging technique. So at THIS stage of learning, it isn't worthy to buy its PROfessional version.

Anyway, after using JCreator to locate those lines, please continue using NotePad for correction & go back to DOS Prompt to test your codes. Because most exercises are more easily tested under DOS prompt for various parameters.

For example,

Suggested Installation methods

1 install Java JDK no matter it's provided by OUHK or download from Sun.
  • If you've already installed JDK, please write down its installation directory, such as [C:\JDK]
  • If you have download the JDK documentation ( 33 MB ) from Sun, please extract it under [C:\JDK\docs]
2 install JCreator will all default value UNTIL .....
..... you're prompted for the JDK installation path, if you've already installed JDK this path will be automatically displayed, anyway please verify the path you recorded in step-1, such as  [C:\JDK\bin]
.... you're prompted for the JDK documentation directory,
  • if you didn't have this documentation, please ignore this screen by clicking [next],
  • otherwise, enter the path you recorded in step-1, such as  [C:\JDK\docs]
3 after installation, please start JCreator immediately
4 create a new PROJECT, click [File]->[New]->[Project]
  • As shown in screen 01.jpg, please enter the Project Location directly under the root directory, such as [c:\mt201],
  • give a project name for new projects, such as [unit-6] for all unit-6 exercises and [tma-3] for all works on tma-03
  • check both the [Empty Project] option & [Create new workspace] option

 Testing & File Management

1 Now, you can test file editing by clicking [File] ->[New] ->[Basic Java Application]

Entering a file name, such as screen 02.jpg.

Now, a [ .java ] file will be created by JCreator, you can easily access them from the DOS prompt

please also refer to my screen 03.jpg, 04.jpg and 

 
2 to compile your Java codes, click [Build] ->[Compile file]  05.jpg
3 compilation error will be displayed on a debug window 06.jpg
4 you can also resize the debug window for a better view of the error messages 07.jpg 08.jpg
5 to run your error free program, click [Build]->[Execute file] 09.jpg
6 if your java program requires additional parameters, please run it under DOS Prompt.

Under DOS prompt, please change directory to [classes], where, all compiled Java classes will be kept there by JCreator's system default 10.jpg

 Accessing prior files

1 While working on your project namely "Unit-6", suppose you like to review your codes for TMA-02 where there are kept under [c:\tma2] then you can import it as follows
  1. click [Project]-> select [Add files . . . ]    11.jpg
  2. expand the directory drop down menu     12.jpg
  3. identify & select the required program such as q4v.java  13.jpg
  4. now click the "File view" window to ensure q4v.java is listed 14.jpg
  5. to display all the source codes of q4v.java, simply double click on it; then the source will be shown on the source window 15.jpg

Note : the source file q4v.java remains in [c:\tma2], but the ".class" file will be kept under [c:\mt201\Unit-6\classes] 16.jpg
2 If you like to access all source codes of tma2, you can also import them using similar procedure as shown in step-1 by
  • clicking [Project]-> select [Add Directory contents . . . ]

 
3 If you find it confusing in operating files in 2 different source directories ( as stated in step-1), you may consider closing your current "Unit-6" project and open the original "tma2" project again

JCreator provides 2 versions as follows:

(1) Limited Edition (LE)

You can download this free version via this link http://www.jcreator.net/download/jcrea250.zip

(2) PROfessional version (PRO)

You can download it for evaluation for 30 days from these links

Regarding the difference between this 2 version, please read this page http://www.jcreator.com/Features.htm

For further info, please visit its official home page http://www.jcreator.com

JCreator Help / Tutorial

Updated on Friday, 19 March, 2004
Go back TOP of page Home page
Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

1