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BlueJ first, obviously; but what next, when, and why?

BlueJ first, obviously; but what next, when, and why?. Ian Utting. Overview. BlueJ is a popular IDE for introducing beginners to OO programming in Java, but it was not designed to cater for students' needs as the systems they develop become more complex.

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BlueJ first, obviously; but what next, when, and why?

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  1. BlueJ first, obviously; but what next, when, and why? Ian Utting

  2. Overview • BlueJ is a popular IDE for introducing beginners to OO programming in Java, but it was not designed to cater for students' needs as the systems they develop become more complex. • This talk will look at issues in BlueJ's support for large, complex projects, appropriate jumping-off points for moving on to a more fully-featured IDE, and at work being undertaken by the BlueJ and NetBeans development teams to aid that transition.

  3. BlueJ • BlueJ is a Java IDE targeted at beginners to programming, typically first-year CS undergraduates • It’s goals are to: • Introduce classes and objects from day 1 • Expose object fundamentals: • state • behaviour • multiplicity • independence • Let students experience objects • Emphasise modelling • It’s in use at over 400 Universities, maybe 250000 students a year, certainly ½ million downloads a year

  4. But … • There comes a point when students need to leave BlueJ behind them • But they won’t • Problem is Packages (to an extent) but mainly just the number of classes in a package • Lack of tool and framework support is any issue as the curriculum broadens • J2ME/J2EE development/deployment • GUI builders • CVS • Extensions are a help, but not a panacea

  5. Moving on to a grown-up IDE • The step up to an out-of-the-box Professional IDE is still large • We don’t see commitment to teaching/supporting the transition – it’s often FOFO by default rather than design • BlueJ’s extensions ethos is offset in Pro IDEs by tick-list marketing (everything is turned on by default) • There have been a number of attempts to produce cut-down versions of Pro IDEs for teaching: • Gild (U. Victoria, Canada) and Penumbra (Purdue) on top of Eclipse • Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Express • Maybe the problem is that they don’t have a starting-point, so they’re trying to produce BlueJ replacements, not BlueJ follow-ons?

  6. An aside on “flattery”

  7. An aside on “flattery”

  8. An aside on “flattery”

  9. Designing a BlueJ follow-on • Goals: • Everything that’s visible must be familiar, or highly valuable • Everything that’s not familiar should be part of the new environment • This should be the last transition for students (in this “thread”) • Installation should be trivial • Evolution (towards the full-blown Pro IDE) should be easy • Occasional reversion to BlueJ should be supported • Choice of which-new-features-to-reveal is going to be very dependent on curriculum

  10. NetBeans BlueJ Edition • Designed and developed by the BlueJ and NetBeans development teams, especially Michael Kölling, Ian Utting and Milos Kleint. • Beta by May 15 • Ship late July?

  11. Demonstration

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