Hi! , Im trying to use Mac OS X panther's terminal to compile , but i don't know how to make an executable, all i know is that there is .jar , .java and .class.

Ive always programmed in c++, so i understand the code i see in .java files and supposedly you should be able to compile like this " java javafile.java" , "jar javafile.jar" but this dosen't work and a messege appears :

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError

and the problem is that the file does have a main function.

any info would be much appreciated and plz no Xcode suggestions