Prerequisites

You don't really need a PC. You could do this on UNIX, an AS/400, a mainframe, or anywhere that you have a Java runtime environment (although the steps will be a bit different).

You'll need a text editor (Windows "Write" will do) and a web browser.

If you want to write new commands, you'll need a JDK and a working understanding of Java programming. For my development, I use JBuilder3.5 Foundation on WindowsNT for writing and compiling and run the server on a Linux system.