Our Programming Environment:
The Hardware Platform(s)
We will use class.cs.smu.ca, a Linux machine, as well as the lab PCs running Windows XP. The lab PCs will also be used as the "front end" to access the Linux machine.
For purposes of comparison, or to illustrate some particular feature that may be difficult or impossible to illustrate on one platform or the other, we may occasionally (or even often) run a Java program on both platforms. Java is supposed to be cross-platform, and is to a large extent, but there are sometimes exceptions to this ideal and they seem to arise when least expected. But, for the most part, you should be able to develop on one platform and expect the end result to run on the other.