An IDE can help you learn syntax as well, with the added benefit that your code is compiled incrementally every time you save the file (at least with Eclipse),

An IDE can help you learn syntax as well, with the added benefit that your code is compiled incrementally every time you save the file (at least with Eclipse), meaning you don't need to drop back down to javac each time you want to compile, and then compare the results in a command window to what is in your Notepad session. So really, would you prefer to get red squiggly lines to show you your errors as you type, or would you rather try to get it perfect first before having to run a command-line program for compilation?