You may have been puzzled by links in the Java glossary to the J: disk drive. This
refers to the drive where you store your Java stuff, i.e. JDK, EE and possibly a
mirror copy of the mindprod website in J:\mindprod. You would map it to the drive where this stuff really exists, e.g. C: or
E:.
Why have a J: Drive?
If you map your J: drive to whatever drive you installed the JDK, then you can use the
J: links in the Java glossary to rapidly navigate the documentation on your local hard
disk. e.g. Sun’s JDK Technote Guide on
2D Drawing : available:
or a link like this: J:\mindprod\jgloss\jdk.html
into your local hard disk mirror of the Java glossary kept up-to-date via the Replicator. This way you can browse the Java Glossary and the Sun documentation
rapidly, even when you are off-line.
Browser Support for the J: links
For security reasons, most browsers deliberately do not supported the J: links,
directly. However, you can indirectly use the link with:
- In Opera right click copy link and paste into the
command line. Then hit enter. Then it will go. Just clicking once does nothing.
- In Mozilla and Firefox, use Copy Link Location and paste to the command line.
- In Netscape, use Copy ShortCut and paste to the
command line..
- IE directly supports the J: links. Just click as you would any other link.
All browsers also directly support the J: links with a single click, but only if you
have downloaded the mindprod website with the replicator and are clicking a J: link in
a downloaded document. Only IE directly supports the link whether you download the mindprod website or use it online.
Setting Up Your J: Drive
Lets assume you installed the JDK on drive E:. To map your entire E: drive so you can also access it as J:, first click My Computer ⇒ right click E: properties ⇒ sharing ⇒ share this
folder ⇒ ok. Then click My Computer ⇒ right click E: ⇒ open ⇒ tools ⇒ map network drive. Choose J:
as the drive and type in the name
//roedy/E$
as the share name where roedy is your computer’s name. Infuriatingly, you
can’t simply browse to the E:\ directory.
Alternatively you could compose a bat file like this and install it as your login
script:
subst J: E:\
SUBST is quicker and does not fail when other network connections fail. You can undo the
subst, with subst J: /D
While you are at it you can create fake drive shortcuts to directories you use often, or you can use
subst to dynamically assign the P: and Q: drives on the fly when you are working with pairs of directories to save you a lot of
typing.
The best way to use the J: drive feature is to download the website using the
Replicator and put it in a directory called \mindprod on your J: drive or a drive you subst to be your J: drive.