View source for Prerequisites & Preliminaries

Ideally, you would be a decent Java developer and have a good grasp of Web Service concepts and technologies. Throw in some familiarity with a Linux/*nix shell and you should sail through this Primer. Especially, if you have already skimmed through the [[Developer_Guide |Developer's Guide]] to get a rough idea of what gCF can do for you. The viewpoint and style of the Guide are different from this Primer's, and we believe they complement each other well to help you out.

If you don't call yourself a decent Java developer...then by all means keep reading, just be prepared for a ''very'' steep learning curve. If instead you are not much versed in Web Service concepts and technologies, then this brief  [http://www.globus.org/toolkit/docs/4.0/common/key/ summary] from the Globus guys is a good starting point, as it is Sotomayor's [http://gdp.globus.org/gt4-tutorial/multiplehtml/ch01s02.html second chapter] of his much-read [http://gdp.globus.org/gt4-tutorial/ GT4 Tutorial].  And remember, this is the kind of topic for which Google remains your best friend (just stay away from the standard specs for a while longer). As to your familiarity with a shell, no worries, you will need only a modicum to begin with. Best of luck.

Coming to the machine, no point in going ahead before having [[Installation |installed and configured]] gCore, not only for administration but also for building (ANT) and development (JDK5). 
Unless you are insanely devoted to your shell, you probably will want a good Java IDE at hand. The Primer's uses the good old [http://www.eclipse.org/ Eclipse] for all the examples. And unless you are playing, you will need some client for at least committing and checking out your code to and fro a Version Control System, preferably a good plugin for your IDE (e.g. [http://subversion.tigris.org/ Subversion] for Eclipse). 

Now you are ready to start. Not by implementing a service though, not yet. First, you need to [[Preliminaries |setup the environment]] within which you will develop all your services.