• If you quote everything, then it will work even if a path or file name contains spaces
• Instead of
  
  Code:

  foo
  if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then ...; fi
   
  
  

  
  
  you can just
  
  Code:

  if foo; then ...; else ...; fi
   
  
  

• Strings constants can contain newlines, so you don't need to repeat 'echo' on each line.

#!/bin/sh

APPDIR="$(dirname -- "${0}")"

for LIB in \
    java/lib/rt.jar \
    lib \
    lib/build \
    lib/*.jar \
    ;
do
    CLASSPATH="${CLASSPATH}:${APPDIR}/${LIB}"
done
export CLASSPATH

# put the directory where this file lives in the front of the path,
# because that directory also contains jikes, which we will need at runtime.
export PATH="${APPDIR}:${APPDIR}/java/bin:${PATH}"

if jikes -version > /dev/null 2> /dev/null
then
  java processing.app.Base
else
  echo "It appears that the version of Jikes distributed with Processing
cannot properly run on this system.

Possible solutions:

+ If you already have Jikes installed on your system, you may
  just need to remove the version that is included with Processing.

+ You probably just need to track down a version of Jikes that will
  work with your distribution.

+ You may need to install the rpm/package for compat-libstdc++
  This is what it takes to get things running on most versions
  of RedHat Linux or Fedora Core.

+ If all else fails, or if you just like building stuff yourself,
  you can download the source for Jikes from SourceForge:
  http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=128803
  And it just takes a simple ./configure and make, followed by
  copying src/jikes to the processing-XXXX folder and you should
  be all set.

If you get stuck, ask questions online from the helpful folks via
the Processing discussion board: http://processing.org/discourse/

Good luck!"
fi