Java
Contents |
History & About
Java's most important property is that programs are byte-compiled to a platform-independent format, which makes cross-platform programming very easy. All that is required is a Java Virtual Machine on the machine where the program is run. This causes a small amount of overhead compared to machine language compiled programs, but it is definitely possible to write realtime games in Java. This is made more possible by two factors: the Just In Time compilers and RTSJ (the Real Time Specification for Java).
In spite of the interpreter nature of Java, some Java-to-machine code compilers do exist. These compilers allow you to create an executable program from the Java source (instead of generating bytecodes to be interpreted). This obviously makes the program faster on execution, but not portable when compiled. Thus the popularity of the Just-In-Time (JIT) compilers for Java.
Of course, regardless of your choice of compiler, the source code will still remain portable. In this way you can compile in bytecode or platform-dependent or a mixture. One such compiler is the GNU Compiler for Java, part of the GNU Compiler Collection.
Development
Java IDEs
There are many Java IDEs. The most popular three are;
- Netbeans - open source IDE in Java for Java. Supports Swing better.
- Eclipse - open source IDE in Java for Java. Supports SWT better.
- IntelliJ IDEA - open source community edition. Has everything needed for game development with JavaSE
Other Java IDEs
- JCreatorLE
- BlueJ
- IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate - commercial edition. Has support for JavaEE frameworks, i.e. hibernate, gwt. Not needed for game development
Java Compilers
Java JDKs
- producers of JDKs: from Sun, from IBM, from ...
- "hard" Real Time support via RTSJ: from Sun, from IBM, from TimeSys
- J2ME, J2SE, J2EE
Tutorials and Source Code
For tutorials on Java, click here: View Java Tutorials.
Community Help
Still need help? Ask on the forums and see what we can do. Java Programming Forum
