Before starting out in CP development, check that you've properly installed your development toolkit.

Download and install the latest version of the Community Place browser from the Virtual Society website at http://sonypic.com/vs.

Download the Sun Java Development Kit (JDK) from http://java.sun.com. Follow Sun's directions to set up the JDK.

Assuming you installed CP in a directory named "CP", you'll find a file called VSCLASS.ZIP in "CP\LIB\JAVA". Unzip this file into your JAVA\LIB directory. For example, if you installed the JDK into C:\JAVA, and CP into C:\CP, you need to unzip C:\CP\LIB\JAVA\VSCLASS.ZIP into C:\JAVA\LIB. Make sure you preserve the directory structure of the ZIP file, either by using the -D flag in pkunzip, or by using WinZip's "Use Directory Names" option. (Note: you may have a problem with the first file in the archive, which is a malformed filename. In that case, if using WinZip, just de-select it and unzip the rest of the files manually.)

That should do it! When developing Java programs for CP, you can compile your Java source code by typing the following command at the DOS prompt in your development directory:

                  javac foo.java

Technical note: If you include System.out.println statements in your Java programs, you can view them by running CP in debug mode by adding a "-d" flag at the end of your command to run the Community Place browser (i.e., vscp -d).