Prepare your working environment (EN)

24/09/2021

Développement Installation

We want to develop our own applications but how to be effective when we work ?What should I do to start?What software do I need to install?A good craftsman has good tools.It’s the same for a software developer..

Java installation

When you are a lambda user you can install a Java Runtime Environment (JRE). To develop app, we need more tools to compile, monitor… In this case we will use a Java Development Kit (JDK)

Last version of Java is Java 16 (2021). Java is released every 6 months, but only a few versions are defined as LTS (long term support). As of September 2021, Java 8 and 11 are supported as Long Term Support (LTS) versions, and one later non-LTS version is supported. So today we should use Java 11

All versions are available on this URL https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/downloads/

If you are running Linux (Fedora, CentOS) you can run

~$ sudo yum install java-11-openjdk-devel

under Linux (Debian, Ubuntu) you can run in a terminal

~$ sudo apt install openjdk-11-jdk

On Ubuntu / Debian you can list the different versions with

~$ apt search openjdk

If you have several versions of Java on Linux you can use the following command to set the default version

~$  update-alternatives --config java

Check that Java is installed. For that open a terminal

~$  java -version
openjdk version "11.0.11" 2021-04-20
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 11.0.11+9-Ubuntu-0ubuntu2.20.10)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 11.0.11+9-Ubuntu-0ubuntu2.20.10, mixed mode, sharing)

IDE installation

An integrated development environment (IDE) is a set of tools that can increase the productivity of software developers. It includes a text editor for programming, functions that allow to start the compiler, run tests, run executables, debug online … There are several IDE on the market.

When you develop in Java, you have several alternatives: Eclipse, NetBeans, IntelliJ Idea

After 20 years of development, I used a lot IDE. IntelliJ Idea is for me the best one to develop in Java, but the Premium version is not free. But you can use the community version freely.

To simplify mutual aid we will all use the same IDE, Idea Community version. Download the last version. You can also try to obtain a free licence on this link for the premium version.

Launch your IDE to check that everything works

Figure 1. logo IntelliJ