1. It depends on your app, you can go ahead fine with 256 megs with no crazy jvm tweaks at all. 2. It doesn't have to be complicated - it's the developers who

1. It depends on your app, you can go ahead fine with 256 megs with no crazy jvm tweaks at all. 2. It doesn't have to be complicated - it's the developers who make it so. 3. it depends on your server and configuration. Every server supports class reloading and jsp recompiling. 4. You don't have to - eclipse and netbeans are free and very powerful. Notepad for simple tweaks if you have to.