*clearly a newbie*

-------
"Under the hardness of her facade a woman's heart is still beating."

---

So I started a new one and now I can't get it to compile. I can get it to compile in jGRASP but not in a DOS window which is what I'm supposed to do. Wha?...

*clearly a newbie*

---

The error I was given was something to the extent of javac not being recognized as an internal or external command.

-------
"Under the hardness of her facade a woman's heart is still beating."

Assuming windows because of the error you gave...
Go to wherever you installed java.  The default is C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_07 if you're using the updated version at the time of this posting.  Make sure that this directory has a bin subdirectory, and that that bin subdirectory has java, javac, and all those other exe/bat files in there.

THEN add that bin directory to your PATH environment variable.
Start > Right click "My Computer" > Properties > Advanced Tab > Environment Variables > find PATH in the lower section and press Edit, and append C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_07\bin to the end of that string (adjust as necessary).

NOW, open up cmd and if you type "echo %PATH%" the java bin should show up, and when you type java or javac it will be recognized as a command

-------
"Don't bail; the best of the gold is at the bottom of the barrels of crap."
-- Randy Pausch