I started reading this old book about jsp, and I'm having a few problems getting started. First of all, it says that I need to set these environment variables: Java_HOME, and J2EE_HOME. I don't see those, and I don't think their is a need for them, but I can't get this one command line argument going. I'm trying to start the server, but it says cannot find j2ee. Here is what it told me to type at the command line: start j2ee -verbose, but that doesn't work. I have downloaded j2ee4.2, and I have jdk1.5, so what's the problem?

There is no J2EE 4.2, that may be your problem

Go get yourself Apache Tomcat (latest version, 5.5.something) and install that.
Tomcat needs JAVA_HOME set correctly AFAIK.
Install tools.jar from your JDK installation in your Tomcat installation (overwrite the one that's there) to make Tomcat work properly with JDK 1.5.

That should be enough to use JSPs. Personally I'd ditch that old book and get a current one. JSP has evolved a lot over the years and most old paradigms for it have been abandoned and are now considered bad practice.
Get O'Reilly's JSP book, it's excellent.

You will need j2ee.jar from your J2EE API installation (and the documentation as well) if you want to go further.

If you go further you'll need a full J2EE application server as well. I recommend Orion (http://www.orionserver.com) which is standards compliant, easy to use, and free for anything almost except running commercial websites.

Thanks for the reply. I've got a new book now; it's called "Head first servlets and JSP"...it's by O'Reily and written in a different format than most books, and I'm curious as to how that will go. I've downloaded Tomcat, and the J2EE app server, but I wont be able to do anything until next week. Once, I get started, I'll probably have a bunch of questions...So stick around, and if you could tell me a good reference site to use.

Thank you for all your help.

HeadFirst books are fun! Excellent for learning, not too sure about their value as reference works.

I just realized that it's a study guide for the Component developer exam. Maybe that will be a good thing, instead of bad.

It's a good book though maybe a bit too advanced if you are just starting out.

Yeah, that's what I thought. I think I'll try it and stick around here to get some extra help if I run into anything difficult. It will be a while before I can start because I won the state championship in programming java for my high school, and now I'm having to prepare for the national championship. So, it will be a little bit!