Macs and Java - from Richard

For the dev tools (Xcode) on Mac there should be an extra install disk included with the operating system (It was with 10.4, I'm not sure with 10.5). If that's not available it can be downloaded from apple's site at http://developer.apple.com/tools/download/. It looks like it would be good to choose Xcode 3.0 for Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) and Xcode 2.5 for Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger). If they're running an older version of Mac OS X, I'm not sure where to go but I can do a more thorough search later if needed. Additionally I believe you have to register a developer account with Apple to actually download; but it's free.

As for java, the java runtime environment is installed by default, I know. If the SDK is not installed by default then it will be after installing Xcode.

Xcode and all of Apple's other development software can be ignored after install. gcc, make, javac, and all the other necessary command line tools will be installed and made available by the Xcode installer.