These notes apply to downloading and installing various software packages for use in CS 190M (CS 19000-010). The directions apply mainly to Windows (I'm running 32-bit Vista). Your mileage may vary.
Java compiler. Start here and download the latest Standard Edition (SE) release of the Java Development Kit (JDK). As of this writing, that is version 6, update 10 RC. The Java Runtime Environment (JRE) comes with this download, so you don't need to get it separately. (Current Mac users don't need to do this step: the JDK comes pre-installed.)
DrJava Integrated Development Environment (IDE): http://www.drjava.org. I downloaded the latest beta release (drjava-beta-20080820-r4639), since it fixes a known incompatibility with Java 6. Note that DrJava does not require a separate installation step: Just click on it to launch.
Running Java from the command line, options and comments…
Cygwin UNIX-like environment for Windows: http://www.cygwin.com. By default, you get a bash shell and other UNIX-compatible commands.
MinGW minimalist GNU environment for Windows: http://www.mingw.org. Comes with Java (actually gcj, if you select it from the options), but you also have to download and install the GNU iconv libraries. Go to the MinGW site and search for “HOWTO Compile with gcj”.
Using Cygwin for the bash shell and the instructions at the Princeton site to add the Java binaries to your path, works well (for me). I abandoned MinGW (the instructions didn't work out of the box for me).