Thread: environmental problems of how installing what and where

I have some advanced knowledge of Java programming, though never studied programming or computerscience as a regular career, so I am always suffer of some lack of knowledge or understanding.

I am getting into data base sql and stuff. Reading about it and find the text/ instructions easy to understand and quite straight forward, good!

But I am having problems with all the surrounding issues like: installing this, downloading such, apache here apache there....

Most of this page Getting Started (The Java™ Tutorials > JDBC(TM) Database Access > JDBC Basics) is a kind of magic for me, and the hardest question is: where can one really learn how to do things discussed at that page (I own a Imac which makes things even more complicated, right?).

Some concrete questions:

-??? "Ensure that the full directory path of the Java SE SDK bin directory is in your PATH environment variable so that you can run the Java compiler and the Java application launcher from any directory."

-I basically could question each line....

-what about this one: "Create a directory to contain all the files of the sample. These steps refer to this directory as <JDBC tutorial directory>" I thought directories look like this ueser/download/etc?
So how do I create a directory: <JDBC tutorial directory>

thanks

--- Update ---

When I downloaded the JDBCTutorial.zip folder I used the next farmer's trick:
I started a java project at Netbeans with the name of the zip folder
and copied the content of the zip into the project folder...
It sort of worked but, of course, there are some missing links as always!
I really would like to get some personal coaching on these environmental issues,
anybody near to Barcelona?

You might look for another tutorial that includes Linux/Mac instructions. When you say,

Create a directory to contain all the files of the sample . . . So how do I create a directory

I'm curious if that'll help. You don't know how to create a folder on your iMac?

"You don't know how to create a folder on your iMac?" Sure, Greg, but they want some filepath probably for my netbeans platform in which I compile stuff (or I just got confused).

I recently got involved with PHP, a real relief after studying Java. PHP is a short of narrowed version of a procedural java without the dizzy making OOP! But then again you have to install server stuff (apache etc.). Than you really get into a tiny cute small application called "terminal" (note the deeper meaning here). Than you get into stuff as sudo, sado etc. and eventually some very nice remarks pop up like: "if you'r not sure what you are doing...... you may have to re-install your entire system....", man where to learn all this stuff?
I might go into some reading of Netbeans and sql,, I just think of, right?

I am studying Unix right now, many thanks