FirstThingsFirst

What's all that stuff in the FirstThingsFirst directory?

When you look in the FirstThingsFirst folder, you'll see several files with funny names and a strange looking folder. Something like this:

src
.classpath
.gitignore
.project

The "src" folder is where the source code will go. If you click on the name, you'll see one java file.

The other files are things that you can ignore, if you want to. You can look at them if you'd like, but don't change any of the contents.

The ".classpath" file is created by Eclipse and contains information that helps Eclipse find different libraries of code other people have written.

The ".gitignore" file is used by git to know which file NOT to put into version control.

The ".project" file is used by Eclipse to store information specifically about our project.

What's all the gobbledygook in the HelloWorld.java file?

The file starts off with a strange looking "/" that marks the beginning of a comment. In programming, a comment is ignored by the language and is intended to help a human reader understand why the code does what it does. The symbols "/" mark the end of the comment.

Like most other open source files, this file starts off with a copyright notice. This particular license allows anyone to use the code as long as they make any changes to the code open source.

The next comment is a short description of why the program was written.