Editors

For this class, you have a variety of editors & IDEs (Integrated Development Environments) available to you.  We'll be using these to edit our programs, and using various web browsers (such as Microsoft Internet Explorer, and/or the Mozilla Firefox browsers) to 'run' the JavaScript code.

If you can, I'd recommend using Aptana, since it's the most full-featured, and it's completely free (it's open-source).  You're welcome to use anything that you're comfortable with, however.

Notepad:

Already installed with Windows.  Something similar is available for Mac.  For Linux, you've got tons of options, including vi & emacs, which aren't easy, but are very powerful.

On Windows, you can start Notepad by going to the "Start Menu", then "All Programs", then "Accessories" - it should be right below the various folders

SitePadPro
(This has already been installed for you on the computers at Cascadia)

Technically, you can develop JavaScript-enabled web pages using nothing more than Notepad, and a web browser.  However, this can be tricky, so it will be easier to use an Integrated Development Environment (IDE).

You have the option of using the SitePadPro 4.5 IDE during class, at school. You can use this at home after you've downloaded download a trial version from:

http://www.modelworks.com/downloads.html

Download “SitePadPro 4.5” or later (it’s about 6.98 MB in size).  The trial version can only open files that are 2.5 kB (that’s right – kilobytes) or smaller in size.  As such, you might want to purchase a full version, just to save yourself the headache.  If you do want to buy the full version, you've got a couple options: you can buy on-line at full price ($40), or you can buy online, and in Step 4 of 8 use the Order Code edu2002, and put your student number and school name (Cascadia Community College) into the School Name field.  This'll cost you $25. 

Once you’ve downloaded the IDE, you should then install it. You can then use it to open .HTML and .JS files, which you can then edit.  In order to view your changes, you'll need to open the .HTML/.JS files in a web browser.

Aptana (for home use):

1. Go to http://www.aptana.org, and download the Aptana installer. I *believe* that this includes everything you need, including the Java software that it requires.
   1. Since Aptana is based on Eclipse (http://www.eclipse.org, if you're curious), and since Eclipse is written in Java, you may  need to download a copy of the Java software, first.  You can pick Java up from http://java.sun.com.
   2. Aptana an FAQ available at http://www.aptana.org/docs/index.php/Main_Page

Aptana (for school use):

Here at school, we've already got the Eclipse software package installed.  Aptana is available as a 'plug-in' for Eclipse, which you can get by following the directions on http://www.aptana.org/docs/index.php/Plugging_Aptana_into_an_existing_Eclipse_configuration.   You should be able to do this via the "Instructions" section (you should NOT need to use the "Installing Manually" instructions)

Full Instructions:

You've actually got two options

FIRST OPTION: Download Aptana from www.aptana.org , and install it into your "H:" drive - this way, you'll have it available whenever you log in to any of the computers at school.

SECOND OPTION: Given that Eclipse is already installed on all the Cascadia computers, you can just add on the Aptana modules.  This will mean downloading substantially smaller files, but will also mean that you'll need to do this for many of the computers you log into (basically, you'll need to do this the first time you log into any computer)

Here are the detailed instructions for the second option:

1. Locate & run the basic Eclipse program
   1. Click on Start, then My Computer
   2. Here at school, Eclipse is installed in the directory c:\Program Files\Eclipse.  Navigate to there by double-clicking on "Local Disk (C:)", then find and open the "Program Files" folder, then find and open the "Eclipse" folder
   3. Double-click on the Eclipse.exe file.  It's icon is a purple circle that looks like:
   4. At this point, the basic Eclipse program should run.  It will throw up a splash screen.  It may be several minutes before the program fully loads
2. Add the Aptana package into the basic Eclipse software
   1.  Go to Help -> Software Updates -> Find and Install
      
       
   2. Make sure you've told it to Search for new features to install, then click Next
      
       
   3. Tell it you want to use a New Remote Site
      
       
   4. You want to tell it to use http://update.aptana.com/install/  (You should also check http://www.aptana.org/docs/index.php/Plugging_Aptana_into_an_existing_Eclipse_configuration, in order to make sure that this is still the most location for the Aptana updates). You can give it any name you want, but I'd recommend Aptana, like so:
      
       
   5. Make sure that you've selected this new site (whatever you called it in the previous step), and then click on Finish
      
       
   6. Eclipse will then contact the remote server, and get a list of updates.
   7. You want to select the top-level choice, so that you get everything below it:
      
       
   8. Click next, and then agree to the open-source license.
      
       
   9. Click on Finish, and it will begin the download proces:
      
       
   10. Once that's done (it may take a while), you want to select the Install All button:
       
        
   11. This will also take a while.  Once it's done, you want to restart Eclipse:
       
        
   12. Once Eclipse starts up again, you want to open the Window menu, then the Perspectives menu, then select Other...
       
        
   13. From there, you want to select the Aptana perspective
       
       
        
   14. You may want to close many of the resulting windows
       
       
        
   15. For our purposes, you only really need the Editor & Problems windows
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   16. You're done!