If I wanted to compile code in java, I go to environment variables and set the PATH variable to the bin of the jdk on my computer. Now my command prompt recognizes commands like "javac" and "java" and I can compile/run code without any issues.
But if I wanted to compile code in C/C++, suddenly commands such as "gcc" or "g++" are no longer recognized by my command prompt because the PATH variable was overwritten to the java location. I could change it back to the location of my C/C++ compilers, but then my command prompt would no longer recognize the java commands.
How can you make the command prompt recognize all commands? There must be a better way than changing environment variables every time.
You can append all needed paths to your PATH variable. You will want to put them in order of priority, in case there are matches that may potentially be found on multiple path entries.
For example, for Windows:
set PATH=%JAVA_PATH%;%PATH%
set PATH=%CPP_PATH%;%PATH%
...
Or, as a single line:
set PATH=%JAVA_PATH%;%CPP_PATH%;...;%PATH%
(Hypothetical entries - substitute as appropriate.)