J: drive : Java Glossary

by Roedy Green ©1996-2008 Canadian Mind Products
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J: drive

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 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 Release notes on What’s new in the JDK

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: link. Just click as you would any other link.

All browsers also directly support the link with a single click, but only if you have downloaded the website and are clicking a J: link in a downloaded document. IE directly supports the link whether you download the website or use it on-line.

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.

File Explorer Student Project
JDK
JRE
login script
Replicator

	Please email your feedback for publication, errors, omissions, broken/redirected link reports and suggestions to improve this page to Roedy Green :
	Canadian Mind Products
	mindprod.com IP:[65.110.21.43]
	Your face IP:[38.103.63.16]	The information on this page is for non-military use only.
	You are visitor number 66,531.	Military use includes use by defence contractors.
	You can get a fresh copy of this page from:	or possibly from your local J: drive (Java virtual drive/Mindprod website mirror)
	http://mindprod.com/jgloss/jdrive.html	J:\mindprod\jgloss\jdrive.html