App to use for coding Java?

Hello. I am new here. I'm trying to learn Java 6, but I cannot find a single program to use to actually CODE it. (I have a Mac)

I've tried downloading the JDK from the ADC site, but I don't understand how to actually USE what is installed. Some kind of 'Java Web Start' and 'Java Preferences'. If there's something I'm doing wrong, please tell me. I'm rather confused.

Otherwise, that'd be really awesome if any of you knew of a (preferably freeware) app that I can use to code Java. I've tried using NetBeans, but I don't really like it. I'd prefer something that's not an IDE, and is just a bare-bones compiler and linker. You can email me if you like.

Thanks,
Jearb

If you have installed the JDK, it should have the executables for compiling and running java programs. On the command line, "java" will run a Java program, and "javac" will compile it. For example:

if you have a program in the file HelloWorld.java, to compile and run it, you would execute the following two commands:

javac HelloWorld.java
java HelloWorld

I haven't touched a mac in a long time, but you will need to make sure that your paths are set correctly to find the java executables. They should be in the JDK installation directory in a sub-directory named "bin".

Eclipse definitely works on a Mac if you wanna give that a spin.

Eclipse eats up a lot of RAM, i have 567 and its running very slow, or it could be my 1gig processor speed but I'm not sure...

either way I prefer TextPad, it has good highlighting and compile/run shortcuts

eclipse is nice but awfully slow on my computer

Jearb, if you have a moderately up to date computer I'd strongly recommend eclipse.

Besides just syntax highlighting, many of the mistakes you'll make (especially as a beginning coder) are checked and highlighted, and in terms of usability, eclipse is really easy to get running -- there are also a lot of tutorials around for it.

Here's the "Getting Started" tutorials page from eclipse: http://www.eclipse.org/resources/?category=Getting%20Started