From emails of readers wondering how I have my development environment set up, I decided to get this documented somewhere in response. I promise it's the simplest setup ever, and you can get cranking on code and produce applications much sooner than other options I have tried.
For basic Java EE 5 development, you need a Java IDE, an application server, the JDK, and a database application. Here are details of what my environment consists of:
Development System:
2.66GHz Pentium 4 HP Pavilion laptop with Windows XP SP2 and 1.2GB RAM. The emphasis here is a fast processor and gobs of memory. I also recommend about 4GB of hard disk space for the tools and projects.
Integrated Development Environment:
NetBeans 5.5; came bundled with Sun Java System Application Server 9u1 (or you can always associate it later). You should also have JDK 5.0 or later installed.
Remember to update system environment variables such that when you run java -version on the command prompt, it is successful. You can debug applications on the server from the IDE quite simply.
Database Application:
MySQL 5.x. You can set up SJSAS9u1 to use this database for your applications by setting up references to it from the admin console. SJSAS comes with Apache's DerbyDB database, but I prefer MySQL because it is production grade and comes with admin tools.
That's all there is to it. Pretty novice, isn't it? But as any good programmer, you should have alternatives on standby for when your primary environment seems to misbehave. I maintain an installation of the JBoss Application Server 4.0.3, the Eclipse 3.x IDE/platform, MS SQL Server 2000 Developer Edition, and (believe it or not) JBuilder 2005 Foundation. Except for MS SQL, everything I do development on is free (or costs very little).
As you get more advanced with the language and application development, you'll find need for decompilers, profiling tools, unit test and optimization tools, productivity and feature packs (such as the web pack or C/C++ development pack), modeling tools, and other integration tools. You might want to use CVS at some point for source code control and start building your own libraries and templates.
This setup is only suitable for desktop and web applications. More advanced programming will certainly require other tools. For example, if you do reverse engineering, this setup will not help you. Keep an eye out for posts I'll do on reverse engineering. In the first such posts, I'll focus on r.e.'ing DVDs and CDs with so-called protection. That topic will be my graduate school dissertation.
As to my qualifications, I'm simply still a college student. Almost all my programming/computing skills are self-taught (read lots of books, surf the web, code a lot, learn by experience). Very little has come from my formal training. I have a couple of programming certifications in Java and C/C++, database (MS, Oracle), and MCSEs. Lots more valuable experience working in telecommunications (programming cell phones) and storage device development (read FC, SAS and SCSI storage controllers). Nothing special there, except my passion to learn and use what I learn. I also contribute code regularly to open-source projects such as those on SourceForge.com. Finally, I don't like Microsoft stuff - if I knew Linux well enough, I'd move all my development to it (some day). Although I can program with C# and other .Net technologies, I'm not even listing them here ...
Hope this answers the emails. Thanks for those, by the way.
