A newbie question

2895181

I am attempting to teach myself java using tutorials, etc.  fyi: I'm a retired mainframe developer (assembler language) and have proficiency in C++ as well. So while I'm just beginning with java I do have experience.  Her's my problem:  I downloaded and installed the current version of java: jdk 1.8.0_31.  The instructions I am working from say to test the install be asking for the current java version number by submitting "java -version" on the command line and that works just fine, it accurately reports the version.   The next instruction was to check the version number of the compiler by submitting "javac -version" and that does not work, my system tells me javac is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or bach file.   And yes, I did add:  "C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_31\bin\;" to the end of the path environment.  I can also physically "see" the javac executable in the C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_31\bin file.  So I'm obviously doing something wrong but it isn't obvious (to me, anyway).  Suggestions?  Thanks - Mike