there is a program called jcreator. it is a wonderful program for beginner programmers. it can build the program, which basically means it will run it and show itself the result, and then tells you if you have an error and if you do it will show you where in your program there is an error, if not then it will say your good to go. it also does what i call garbage collecting which means it will delete any objects that you create but end up not using in the final result so that way you dont have to do it manually. and its laid out very organized for beginners.

heres a link to get it: http://www.jcreator.com/download.htm

i currently use the JCreator LE version for school.