[Chapter 3] 3.4 The Netscape Alternative

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| Chapter 3 Tools of the Trade |

## 3.4 The Netscape Alternative

If the JDK is not available for your platform, but you have access to a Java-enabled version of Netscape Navigator, you can take advantage of a special Netscape switch to compile and run Java applications. The `-java` switch provides direct access to Netscape's implementation of the Java run-time system and supports the same command-line options as Sun's java interpreter. Here's the general syntax for using the `-java` switch:

    % netscape -java [interpreter options] class name [program arguments]

Before you can use Netscape's `-java` switch, you have to download the JDK; you need the classes.zip file that is part of the JDK distribution. After you have unpacked the distribution, set the `CLASSPATH` environment variable to point to both Netscape's class archive and the classes.zip file from the JDK:

    CLASSPATH=/usr/lib/java/classes.zip:/home/vicky/.netscape/moz2_0.zip:.

Now you can compile a .java file using Netscape's `-java` switch as follows:

    % netscape -java sun.tools.javac.Main source file

In this case, you are actually using the `-java` switch to run the Java compiler, javac, and supplying the source file as an argument to the compiler. Recall that javac is itself a Java program, which is why you can run it using the `-java` switch. The above command produces a class file and stores it in the same directory as the source file.

After you have compiled a Java application with Netscape, you can use Netscape to run it. You can use the `-java` switch to run nongraphical Java applications. In other words, you can run any application that doesn't use AWT. You can't use the `-java` switch to run applications that use AWT because Netscape has its own toolkit that employs Netscape native components. However, you can use the `-java` switch to compile applets (and applications) that use AWT. As always, you can display these applets using Netscape as a Web browser.

The Java Compiler |  | The Applet Tag