Before we begin, let’s quickly look at what you need to run the examples and develop your own applications. You really need only three things:
The Apache Tomcat server is the reference implementation for JSP 1.1. All the examples in this book were tested on Tomcat. In Chapter 4, I’ll show you how to download, install, and configure the Tomcat server, as well as all the examples from this book.
In addition, there are a wide variety of other tools and servers that support JSP, from both open source projects and commercial companies. Close to 30 different server products support JSP to date, and roughly 10 authoring tools with varying degrees of JSP support are listed on Sun’s JSP web site (http://java.sun.com/products/jsp/ ). Appendix E, also contains a collection of references to JSP-related products, web hosting services, and sites where you can learn more about JSP and related technologies. You may want to evaluate some of these products when you’re ready to start developing your application, but all you really need to work with the examples in this book are a regular text editor, such as Notepad, vi, or Emacs, and of course the Tomcat server.
So let’s get going and take a closer look at what JSP has to offer. We need a solid ground to stand on, though, so in the next chapter we will start with the foundations upon which JSP is built: HTTP and Java servlets.
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