JDE User's Guide

Introduction

Welcome to the JDE User's Guide. This guide explains how to use the JDE to develop Java applications and applets. The guide assumes that you are familiar with Emacs and JavaSoft's Java development tools.

About the JDE

The Java Development Environment (JDE)  is an Emacs Lisp package that interfaces Emacs to third-party Java application development tools, such as those provided by JavaSoft's Java Development Kit (JDK). The result is an integrated development environment (IDE) comparable in power to many commercial Java IDEs. Features include:

• source code editing with syntax highlighting and auto indendation
• compilation with automatic jump from error messages to responsible line in the source code.
• generates class and method skeletons automatically
• run Java application in an interactive (comint) Emacs buffer
• integrated debugging with interactive debug command buffer and automatic display of current source file/line when stepping through code
• browse JDK doc, using the browser of your choice
• browse your source code, using the Emacs etags facility or a tree-structured speedbar.
• supports latest version of JavaSoft's Java Development Kit
• runs on any platform supported by Emacs and Sun's Java SDK (e.g., Win95/NT and Solaris)
• easily and infinitely customizable
• works with FSF Emacs and XEmacs

JDE Requirements

The JDE requires the following software:

• FSF Emacs or XEmacs on Unix platforms; the 20.3.1 version of NT/Emacs on Windows platforms, for general source file editing and tool integration functions.
• Java Development Kit (JDK) or compatible set of Java development tools (compiler, virtual machine, debugger, class libraries, etc.)
• Web browser (e.g., Netscape or Internet Explorer) for viewing documentation.
• The JDE uses the Emacs package browse-url to launch your Web browser. If you are using NT/Emacs, to benefit fully from browse-url, you must install shellex support for browse-url.
• bash or other Unix-style shell highly recommended for Windows95/NT environments.

JDE Components

The JDE distribution includes the following files:

• jde.el. Defines jde-mode, a major Emacs mode for developing Java code.
• jde-run.el. Runs Java applications and applets
• jde-db.el. Interfaces Emacs to the jdb debugger.
• jde-gen.el. Contains code generation templates.
• speedbar.el. A JDE version of a tree-structured source code browser developed by Eric Ludlam.
• imenu.el. Indexes symbols in Java source code. Required by the speedbar. (Note: the JDE distribution includes imenu.el because recent distributions of XEmacs do not.)
• bsh.jar. Compiled files for the BeanShell, a